(Reuters / Ina Fassbender)

In a major scientific breakthrough that could change how humans harvest energy in the future, Japanese scientists have succeeded in transmitting energy wirelessly.

Researchers from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries used microwave technology to deliver 10 kilowatts of power through the air to a receiver located 500 metres (1,640 feet) away. Mitsubishi's experiment followed an earlier announcement by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) that it had succeeded in transmitting 1.8 kilowatts of power wirelessly to a receiver 170 feet away.

The electricity transmitted by the Mitsubishi researchers was just enough to power a small electric water-boiling kettle, while JAXA's energy transmission was sufficient to power 18 hundred-watt light bulbs. Despite the small amount of energy that was transmitted for short distances in both the experiments, scientists believe that the technology could one day allows us to tap the vast amount of solar energy in space.

JAXA's Solar Power Systems (SSPS) program aims to one day launch solar panel-equipped satellites fitted with microwave antennas, which could beam the collected solar energy to base stations on Earth. Solar panels in space are capable of receiving sunlight 99 percent of the time and function at about 144% of the maximum attainable solar intensity available anywhere on Earth.

However, most satellites orbit around 22,300 miles from the Earth, making it too far for wireless systems to successfully transmit energy. Using microwave technology to transmit power also presents the significant technological challenge of transmitting from a geostationary orbit 36,000 kilometers above Earth to a flat surface 3 km in diameter with pinpoint accuracy.

The breakthrough achieved by the Japanese researchers has the potential to allow humans to tap the inexhaustible source of solar energy in space sometime in the future, though scientists would have to first overcome various challenges, like figuring out how such huge structures can be constructed, sent into space and maintained.