Power distribution has relied for decades on copper but that is changing
Earlier this month, communication specialists HUBER +SUHNER launched a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) that powered an active antenna using fiber optics rather than more traditional copper wires, replacing in certain cases, power-over-ethernet (PoE) with power-over-fibre (PoF), for almost a decade.
Doing so allows data and power to be transmitted over only one cable; now that has been the case for more than a century as copper wires were used for analog communications but demands for huge amounts of data coupled with advances in photonics means that something that was until recently only limited to very niche applications.
Copper, whilst ubiquitous, has some intrinsic disadvantages: it cannot be installed where high electric voltages occur, it can generate an electric spark, it is sensitive to strong magnetic field and is relatively thicker/heavier than fiber optics.
