Scientists have known for decades that the Earth’s atmosphere contains vast quantities of electrical power. In the early 2000’s, the researchers that would later establish Ion Power Group theorized that useful amounts of clean renewable electrical power could be harvested from naturally occurring atmospheric ions if an effective method of coupling to the atmospheric ions could be discovered. Thus began years of research into determining which materials proved most efficient at coupling with the electric power provided by atmospheric ions.

Ion Power Group’s early research included the use of weather balloons to provide altitude to many different materials testing their suitability for coupling to atmospheric ions. Testing began in Florida over land and water, during the day and also at night. To confirm that harvesting the electric charge of atmospheric ions was not a local phenomenon occurring only in Florida, testing also took place in the deserts of Nevada and at altitude on Mount Charleston.

Laboratory testing included measuring many different material’s ability to harvest electrical energy from airborne ions produced by a remotely positioned high-voltage reference ion generator.

 

Based on successful field tests in Florida and Nevada proving that ion harvesting is not limited to one geographic area, in 2005, a remote-field test facility was established on a 300 acre pasture near Milton Florida, located away from large cities to minimize effects of man-made power emanations.

 

Hundreds of candidate materials were tested, synthetic and organic, to identify the best materials for coupling to the high-voltage electric energy provided by naturally occurring atmospheric ions. Based on the results of years of research, Ion Power Group filed patents for the use of carbon/graphite/graphene for the harvesting of high voltage electricity provided by naturally occurring atmospheric ions.

 

In 2008, Ion Power Group was awarded the first of many patents for harvesting ionic energy from atmospheric ions for the production of electricity, as well as using ionic energy to produce hydrogen gas from water. Today, multiple patents have been awarded to Ion Power Group by the United States, China, Japan, Canada and Russia with patentable action filed in many other countries through the EU and PCT. Two years after Ion Power Group was awarded its first patent for the utilization of carbon/graphite, in separate research, Professors Andre Geim PhD and Konstantin Novoselov PhD were awarded the 2010 Noble Prize in Physics for research into single layer carbon/graphite.