Futuristic Energy Source Still Futuristic
- July 6th, 2007
- 8 Comments
Forget the battery problems plaguing electronics. Steorn, and Irish technology startup, has a better idea: free energy. They claim to have created a device, called the Orbo, that can generate electricity from the ambient atmosphere around it. This would be a perpetual motion machine, and would violate the standard laws of physics. Steorn wants to blow your mind, baby.
The problem is, the machine’s yet to be proven to work. At a demo on Wednesday that was supposed to be the first public viewing of the machine at work, nothing happened. The machine had “technical difficulties”, and Steorn blamed the intense heat generated by the television lights for the problem. Yup.
No word on when a rescheduled demonstration might occur, but I for one am waiting. I’m all about fringe sciences (I heart Bigfoot hunters), so I wish them the best of luck. Also, I hate my electric bill. When they can come up with a way to pull television signals out of the air, then I’m really interested.
Free Energy? Erm, Not Yet, Says Steorn [The Guardian, with more on TechCrunch]
Ryan DUff (Who am I?)
1 year ago
I find it interesting that he blamed something creating an intense amount of energy, that some things (solar panels) could harness and use, to be the reason his machine DIDN’T work. :P
Cosmic (Who am I?)
1 year ago
I don’t understand why this story has gained so much traction. If I sent out a press release that said I could spin straw into gold, would anyone show up? Would they blog about it when I blamed the untransformed pile of hay on the lights?
Anonymous Coward
1 year ago
Doesn’t seem like perpetual energy if it’s harnessing the ambient. The ambient being above absolute zero, there’s theoretically energy there for use. Extracting it would be a neat trick, especially since it would amount to cooling the area, if the energy harvested weren’t being used to produce heat, or used in a thermally wasteful manner.
On the other hand, I appreciate the flippancy.
Thanks, -AC
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David Mackey (Who am I?)
1 year ago
Interesting. I also wonder why this particular claimed invention is attracting so much attention, even while I would hope that it is real (very sceptically).
Matt Hickey (Who am I?)
1 year ago
Ah well I left out the part where they’ve acquired several million in VC funding to make this thing work. But that’s more of an Arrington thing.
Fhb
1 year ago
The picture is not showing an orbo. It’s a test rig
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Virgin (Who am I?)
1 year ago
I’m curious why this invention is attracting quite a bit of attention, is there a reason for it? If so, what?
Mark (Who am I?)
1 year ago
Am I the only one that thinks it’s cool? Even if it didn’t work? Obviously it worked at some point, and maybe ‘all the heat from the lights’ actually didn’t make it work when being shown. It’s still a prototype, but it’s a cool idea.