Researchers at MIT have shown that it’s possible to wirelessly power a 60-watt lightbulb sitting about two meters away from a power source.

Using a remarkably simple setup–basically consisting of two metal coils using resonant coupling–they have demonstrated, for the first time, that it is feasible to efficiently send that much power over such a distance. The experiment paves the way for wirelessly charging batteries in laptops, mobile phones, and music players, as well as cutting the electric cords on household appliances.

In this first demonstration, they showed that the scheme can transfer power with an efficiency of 45 percent.