Wireless charging may be on the way

ENERGOUS has seen its share price more than double this year, largely on the promise of a smartphone future without electrical outlets or charging mats.

Energous, based in San Jose, California, is one of a handful of companies racing to introduce technologies that may allow our phones, tablets and smartwatches to be powered from across a room — all at the same time and completely wirelessly. And 2017 may be the year they finally find their way into consumers’ homes.

In the second half of next year, Energous’s technology will be used in a transmitter that can charge devices from 1.5m away using radio waves, according to CEO Steve Rizzone. In 2018, the company hoped to introduce a similar transmitter that could be integrated into devices like flat-screen TVs to juice up gadgets from 4.5m away, Rizzone said. The company declined to share efficiency data.

Early wireless charging technologies have been slow to catch on, but successful application of so-called Wireless Charging 2.0 would help tech giants and entrepreneurs alike solve the problem of mobility — devices need long battery life to be useful. It would also disrupt a market dominated by Qi technology, which is built into devices including Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and requires placement of a device on a physical charging pad. According to Grand View Research, the wireless charging market is expected to grow to $22.5-billion (R305-billion) by 2022, up from $1.87-billion in 2014.

“If we are not in the market where the majority of devices have wireless charging within five years, then we’ve done something critically wrong,” said Jim McGregor, an analyst at Tirias Research, a hi-tech research and advisory firm.

To be sure, these new technologies still have huge hurdles ahead. Efficiency of power transfer decreases as the distance between transmitter and receiver grows. At a distance of 4.5m, only a fraction of the charge may actually reach the device. Only at a distance of up to about 1m could wireless charging be practical, according to McGregor.

In the next few years, fartherreaching, wireless charging technologies were likely to be used mostly for juicing up small sensors rather than power-hungry smartphones, said David Green, an analyst at IHS Markit.

The US Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the wireless industry, still needs to rule that wireless charging at a long distance is safe. Then there is the matter of convincing manufacturers to embrace these technologies.

“It’s kind of a Star Trek episode,” McGregor said of wirelessly charging a device across a room. “That might be years away.”

Shares of Energous have soared 136% this year, and the company doesn’t even have a product using its technology in stores yet.

The stock has advanced in part on speculation that the company was working with Apple.

Energous finds itself in a crowded field of players looking to become the go-to standard for wireless charging.

“They are kind of sexy, but it’s not a practical reality,” John Perzow, vice-president of market development at the Wireless Power Consortium, which promotes Qi, said of distance charging. “They are extremely inefficient.”

That hasn’t delayed roll-outs, even though the products can only charge at short distances.

“It could be 50 to 200 products

Wireless Charging 2.0 would help entrepreneurs solve the problem of mobility

coming out next year,” said Ron Resnick, president of the AirFuelAlliance.

Ossia expects to introduce receivers in early 2018, with devices able to “catch” that power set to come in 2019, according to CEO Didier Le Lannic.

The company, which is challenging Energous’s patents, hoped to transmit a few milliwatts to 1 watt of power as far as 2.7m away for use in mobile and internet-connected devices like sensors, he said.

“The market will develop similar to Wi-Fi,” said Le Lannic. “First, commercial and office spaces. In every single office that I know of, we foresee deployments. Then the consumer market.”

Ossia has raised $51-million to date and is working with an investment banker to raise $50-million in the next few months, he said.

“The move to eliminate wires is happening everywhere,” said WiTricity CEO Alex Gruzen. “I think within five years it just becomes charging.” —Bloomberg