Nikola Tesla, the eccentric Serbian-American engineer born 150 years ago, wanted to give the world free ­electricity.

Tesla, financed by the banking tycoon JP Morgan, designed a system for sending electricity over the air through a series of enormous towers that would create a “global wireless power grid”. Newspapers at the time said the system would “run all the earth’s industries”.

The project, however, turned out to be more expensive than first thought. Morgan lost interest and Tesla, wracked by failure, suffered a nervous breakdown. The US government blew up his 187ft test tower in 1917, amid fears it was being hijacked by spies.

Instead the electrical revolution was wired. But a century after Tesla’s dream died, the idea of wireless power is again gathering steam. Electricity transferred over the air could mean mobile phones that never have to be plugged in, lights that don’t need a connection, and devices from security cameras to thermostats that do not need batteries.

“The power cord is the last cord left in our lives right now,” says Sanjay Gupta, president of the AirFuel alliance, a consortium investing in wireless power systems. Supporters of the technology say the technology could make cables and power sockets anachronisms like the dial-up modem.