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(Check out our blog for team updates.)

LaserMotive is a Seattle-based company commercializing laser power beaming to transmit electricity without wires for applications where wires are either cost prohibitive or physically impractical. As our first project, we won $900,000 in the NASA-sponsored Power Beaming competition, part of the Elevator:2010 Space Elevator Games. Teams entering the Power Beaming Challenge must power a vehicle 1 kilometer (nearly 3,300 feet) straight up a ribbon using only energy beamed to the vehicle from the ground. Our team was the only one to place in the 2009 competition.

LaserMotive was created in a belief in the utility of laser power beaming for a variety of applications, both near-term and further in the future, in space and on Earth. Recent advances in the power and cost of commercial lasers is bringing many exciting applications within the reach of economic and technical viability, from powering unmanned aerial vehicles to launching rockets via laser power to beaming limitless solar energy from space to the Earth. The Power Beaming Challenge has been an excellent first step along the path to demonstrating the physical and economic viability of laser power beaming.

LaserMotive is a team with literally decades of experience in a variety of areas, and includes world-class laser power beaming experts, experienced machinists, electrical engineers, systems engineers, programmers, and more.

To win the Power Beaming competition, the LaserMotive system has used a high-power laser array to shine ultra-intense infrared light onto high-efficiency solar cells, converting the light into electric power which then drives a motor. For commercial power beaming systems, the electric power coming out of the solar cells can be used for nearly any electrical application.

News and progress updates are available in our blog.

We are deeply appreciative of our sponsors for their generous support during our pursuit of the Power Beaming Competition prizes. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please contact us at sponsors@lasermotive.com. We have multiple levels of sponsorship available.