Part
01
of one
Part
01
Wireless Power
The high-power, long-range wireless power transmission market (that focuses on wireless power only and not wireless charging) is still at a nascent stage. The technology that supports such an endeavor is yet to be developed on a worldwide commercial scale. This can be gauged from the fact that a New Zealand startup called Emrod successfully trialed the world's first "commercial long-range, wireless power transmission" system as late as August 2020. Other startups like the US-based Viziv Technologies are closely following in Emrod's footsteps. Consequently, the number of worldwide installations of high-power, long-range wireless power transmission system is zero. In absence of any data regarding the market size of the exclusive wireless power transmission market (and not the wireless charging market), we had to consider the entire wireless power transmission (including the wireless charging market) as a suitable proxy. Owing to multiple paywalled market reports in the public domain, it has been established that the market size of the global wireless power transmission market in 2020 was in the range of $5.23-$11.14 billion. Asia-Pacific is the biggest market, cornering 50% of the total global revenue.
Global Market Size According to Various Available Paywalled Market Reports
Our research uncovered that every market report available in the public domain is paywalled and includes wireless power transmission as well as wireless charging. The public domain does not contain any free information about the global market size of the high-power, long-range wireless power transmission market exclusively. The global market size of the entire wireless power transmission market according to various available paywalled market reports are given below. There are other market reports available that do not give the numerical value of the global market size.
- According to the report titled "Global Wireless Power Transmission Market Estimated to Grow with a CAGR of 21% During the Forecast Period, 2018-2027" by ResearchAndMarkets, the market size of the global wireless power transmission market was $5.26 billion in 2018. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 21% between 2018 and 2027 and become a $29.23 billion market in 2027. Using the Reverse CAGR calculator at this link gives the value of the global market size in 2020 as $7.7 billion.
- According to the report titled "Wireless Power Transmission Market by Range (Medium, Long), by Technology (Near-Field, Far-Field), by Application (Consumer Electronics, Industrial Applications, Automotive, Defense)- Growth, Future Prospects, and Competitive Analysis, 2019-2027" by Credence Research, the market size of the global wireless power transmission market was $4.8 billion in 2018. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.5% between 2018 and 2027. Using the Reverse CAGR calculator at this link gives the value of the global market size as $6.4 billion in 2020 and $17.56 billion in 2027.
- According to the report titled "Wireless Power Transmission Market Size, Share, Opportunities And Trends By Component (Hardware, Software), By Technology (Inductive Coupling, Capacitive Coupling, Resonant Inductive Coupling, Others), By Range (Short, Medium, Long), By Application (Consumer Electronics, Healthcare, Automotive, Others) And By Geography — Forecasts From 2020 To 2025" by Knowledge Sourcing Intelligence, the market size of the global wireless power transmission market was $9.246 billion in 2019. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.56% between 2019 and 2025 and become a $22.017 billion market in 2025. Using the Reverse CAGR calculator at this link gives the value of the global market size as $10.68 billion in 2020.
- In another report by Knowledge Sourcing Intelligence titled "Wireless Power Transmission Market — Forecasts from 2017 to 2022," the market size of the global wireless power transmission market was $6.563 billion in 2017. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 19.29% between 2017 and 2022 and become a $15.856 billion market in 2022. Using the Reverse CAGR calculator at this link gives the value of the global market size as $11.14 billion in 2020.
- According to the report titled "Wireless Power Transmission Market Size And Forecast" by Verified Market Research, the market size of the global wireless power transmission market was $3.5 billion in 2018. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 22.2% between 2018 and 2026 and become a $17.5 billion market in 2026. Using the Reverse CAGR calculator at this link gives the value of the global market size as $5.23 billion in 2020.
Summary
According to the above figures, the market size of the global wireless power transmission market in 2020 was in the range of $5.23-$11.14 billion.
Regional Breakdown of the Global Market Size
Almost every market report states that Asia-Pacific is the biggest market of wireless power transmission products. This can be gauged from the following statements:
- According to this report by ResearchAndMarkets, "By geography, Asia-Pacific is likely to have a huge demand due to the penetration of electronic industries and rising electronic business in the region, and rising disposable income of the population."
- Credence Research states that "Asia-Pacific dominates the wireless power transmission market with a share of nearly 40% of the total revenue generated worldwide."
- According to Knowledge Sourcing Intelligence, "Geographically, the Asia-Pacific holds the majority share since China is the major manufacturing hub for consumer electronics."
- Transparency Market Research states that "globally, Asia-Pacific holds the largest market share."
- According to Zion Market Research, "Asia-Pacific is the dominating region across the world due to the positive outlook in the electronics industries in China, South Korea, and Japan."
- According to a study conducted by Infinium Global Research, "Among the geographies, Asia-Pacific held the largest share in the wireless power transmission and it is considered as the hub for consumer electronic products such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, and wearable devices." The following pie chart indicates that Asia-Pacific dominates the global market. It is followed by North America, rest of the world, and Europe in that order.
Summary
From the above pie chart, it is clear that Asia-Pacific's share of the global market is 50%. The percentages for the other regions can be assumed as follows: North America (20%), rest of the world (17%), and Europe (13%). Thus, the regional breakdown in terms of market share value (in USD) is as follows:
- Asia-Pacific: 50% of $5.23-$11.14 billion = $2.62-5.57 billion.
- North America: 20% of $5.23-$11.14 billion = $1.05-2.22 billion.
- Rest of the world: 17% of $5.23-$11.14 billion = $0.89-1.89 billion.
- Europe: 13% of $5.23-$11.14 billion = $0.68-1.45 billion.
History and Overview of High-power, Long-range Wireless Power Transmission
- The concept of long-range wireless power transmission was first proposed by the Serbian-American scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla in 1891. Through his Tesla Coil, an electrical resonant transformer circuit "in which a conductor is placed in a changing magnetic field and produces a voltage across the conductor" through the principle of electromagnetic induction, Tesla wanted to prove how the setup "could be used to wirelessly power light bulbs located meters away." However, due to lack of financial backing, Tesla was not successful in his ambition.
- In the 1970s, "NASA showed it could support a helicopter drone in the air by charging it with microwaves from the ground." However, NASA did not develop the technology to make it commercially viable.
- In 2016, Japanese scientists were able to successfully demonstrate long distance wireless power transmission using microwaves over a distance of 50 meters.
- In August 2020, a government-backed New Zealand startup called Emrod successfully trialed the world's first "commercial long-range, wireless power transmission" in New Zealand. The YouTube video featuring the incredible feat can be accessed here.
Working Principle of Emrod's Commercial Long-range Wireless Power Transmission System
- Emrod's technology uses "electromagnetic waves to transmit energy wirelessly over vast distances. Energy is converted into electromagnetic radiation by a transmitting antenna, picked up by a receiving antenna (a rectenna), and then distributed locally by conventional means."
- The system has four components, namely "a power source, a transmitting antenna, transmitting relays, and a receiving rectenna."
- The "transmitting antenna transforms electricity into microwave energy and focuses it into a cylindrical beam. The microwave beam is sent through a series of relays until it hits the rectenna, which converts it back to electric energy."
- In order to minimize the energy losses suffered during transmission, Emrod adopted ideas from optics and radar and used "metamaterials in the relays to focus the transmitted radiation more tightly than previous microwave-based wireless power attempts." The system has given 70% efficiency, and Emrod has plans to improve the efficiency further in the future.
- A key competitor of Emrod in the long-range wireless power transmission market is the Waxahachie, Texas, US-based startup Viziv Technologies.
Research Strategy
We started our research by trying to gather information about the market size of the high-power, long-range wireless power transmission market (that focuses on wireless power only and not wireless charging). We searched for industry reports in the T&D sector, experts articles, blogs, articles by third-party aggregation websites, and even social media platforms for any information regarding the said market. However, despite an exhaustive search, we were unable to gather any information about the said market size. All the publicly available market reports focus on both wireless power and wireless charging. Also, all of these reports are paywalled. We found several such paywalled market reports that mention the global market size. Since all these reports are from credible sources, we could not emphasize one single report over the others. Thus, we have considered all the available market reports that provide the numerical figure of the global market. Since all reports have different starting years, we calculated the market size in 2020 based on the given CAGR in the reports. The year 2020 has been chosen for the purpose of uniformity and recency. We used the Reverse CAGR calculator at this link to calculate the market size in 2020. After finding out the market size in 2020, we have considered the same in the form of a range.
For finding out the regional breakdown of the global market size, we searched for discrete numerical values of the percentages of each global region in the market share. In this instance also, a thorough public search did not reveal any information. Even though the market report by Credence Research states that the Asia-Pacific region commands an almost 40% share of the global market, we were unable to use this figure since the corresponding shares of the other regions were not mentioned. We found a pie chart under a study conducted by Infinium Global Research that shows the regional breakdown of the market. In absence of any numerical figures mentioned in the pie chart and the said report, we assumed the percentage breakdown of each region in the global market from the pie chart. From the assumed percentage shares of each region and the range of the global market size found in the previous step, we calculated the market size of each region (in the form of a range similar to the previous step).
Our search for the number of worldwide installations of high-power, long-range wireless power transmission systems (not wireless charging) only revealed to us that the technology is still at a nascent stage and Emrod is the first company in the world that has successfully trialed the world's first "commercial long-range, wireless power transmission" system. Since the number of global installations is zero, we focused on presenting other information related to the history of high-power, long-range wireless power transmission, the technology used by Emrod to successfully trial the world's first commercial wireless power transmission system, and Emrod's key competitor in the still nascent market.