The new scientific scenario of power wireless transmission

Summary form only given. In our scientific community wireless transmission automatically implies messages transfer from one site to another one, without any wire connection. The actual stringent need of energy , possibly clean and renewable, has revived the old SPS (Solar Power Satellite) idea by P. Glaser (1968): in space, a solar energy collector to convert the solar energy into DC electricity, a DC-to-microwave converter, and a large array to beam down the microwave power; over the ground, a large rectenna (rectifying antenna) to convert the microwave power back to DC power, finally connected to existing electric power networks. This implies power wireless transmission, where the information content has no meaning. This wireless power transmission has been studied during the last 50 years, but the drive has always been the quoted application. However, power wireless transmission exhibits a wider scenario: the scientific features and implication of this new world are worth of an independent exploration. This special session within this Symposium has been organized in this spirit. Accordingly, only basic principles related to radiation and propagation of electromagnetic energy are in order.