In recent years, wireless devices and systems have become ubiquitous not only in consumer markets, but also for a multitude of commercial, industrial, and military applications. Despite this surge in mobility, however, even the most portable of wireless electronics remain reliant on the wired electrical system to charge their batteries. But according to a recent report from Pike Research, new innovations in wireless charging and transmission systems are signaling a day when electricity itself will become more mobile. The cleantech market intelligence firm forecasts that the wireless power industry will reach a key inflection point in 2012 when it crosses the $1 billion revenue mark, and shipments of wireless power devices will achieve significant growth during the years following that milestone.

“The electrical cord is the one tether that has yet to be cut for most mobile users,” says Pike Research president Clint Wheelock. “Today’s early wireless charging systems mostly use inductive charging technologies that require direct contact between the charger and the device, but research is well underway on systems that will eventually transmit power wirelessly over long distances.”

Wheelock adds that wireless power will have important applications in several key market sectors during the next decade: consumer electronics, mobile computing and communications devices, electric vehicles and their charging stations, industrial applications, military applications, and ultimately long-distance transmission. Key technologies currently being pursued within the industry include induction, magnetic resonance coupling, conduction, radio frequency and microwaves, and lasers.

Pike Research’s analysis indicates that wireless power could also have a meaningful impact on clean technology markets in several ways:

• Reducing the need for copper-wire transmission grids
• Transporting power from remote generation sources, such as wind farms and solar arrays
• Collecting and utilizing micro-power from ambient sources, such as cellular networks, that otherwise dissipates – a technique known as “power harvesting”
• Replacing costly and carbon-intensive electricity sources, such as diesel generators, in temporary applications and locales

Pike Research’s report, Wireless Power, analyzes the global market opportunity for wireless power charging and transmission systems. The study examines the applications for which wireless power shows the most promise; reviews the remaining technological hurdles to effective, efficient wireless power charging and transmission; outlines the market challenges to be overcome; spotlights the main players in the industry; and provides market forecasts for revenue, by application and by region, during the period from 2010 to 2020.