Free Energy, Yeah Right?

Topic this round? One of my favorite topics. Free Energy.

This is one of my favorite videos on the subject, I found it when I was doing my undergradute at

U. Maryland




First, let me put my cards on the table. One, I have no doubt that “free energy” would change the world in almost every conceivable way. Two, I don’t think that free energy exists, as such. The physical laws of energy have shown time and again that energy can not be created ex nihilo (out of nothing). Something can’t come from nothing. However, something (i.e. energy) can come from something that we don’t understand. Let me be explicitly clear: I don’t believe free energy exists (as such) and I don’t believe that anyone has found a way to create it anywhere or anyway to my knowledge… and yes, I’ve done a fair amount of Youtube searching, haha.

Perpetual motion generators and ultra-unity, or over-unity, generators seem promising in concept. However, there are a number of issues. One, their general mechanics are such that they encounter too much friction. Even if a generator did create more energy than it took to run it would have to do it in such a way that it were practical to market. Also, how is it that you would apply such a technology? Store energy in batteries? The issue is that batteries loose life and they have limited charges. One battery can only be recharged so many times. While there is some use in keeping the idea in the background, you still are using non-renewable resources. So basically, although free by laws of physics (in a way) by the laws of economics, it still would not be “free”, just cheaper than imaginable.

Even if one can build a perpetual motion machine, that is, a machine that can sustain its self on its own power. It really wouldn’t matter that much on its own. What would be needed is excess energy. It would have to create enough energy so that it could run something. A Ferris wheel that runs all the time is useless. A Ferris wheel that runs a house (or many houses preferably), that is worth something. A guy named Aldo Costa, no not the driver for Ferrari, claims he's made just that.  Now, to clarify, by something here, I mean specifically a Nobel Prize in physics, economics, and peace. Not to mention the billion or possibly trillion dollar business that could be created around such a technology.

Magnetic principles are also used, often times they are just components to perpetual motion or over-unity generators. Magnetism can also magnify input and output. Many of these designs all seem to be based on Tesla's invention, theTeslacoil. The problem is that yes, you can change the output of a machine using magnetism. However, there is an inverse relationship between current (the flow of energy) and the resistance, known as Ohm's Law. So while you can take a small input of energy and lower the resistance so that it has a larger current, it would seem that there is more energy when really it was just manipulated.

However, the idea of Zero-point energy is intriguing. I don’t know that this is actually free energy; I’m also not a physicist. However, it might be possible that energy could be tapped from a source that is yet to be understood. How could we go about tapping such a force? Well it would seem that the miniscule scale that it operates on would mean that conventional means are right out.

Arthur C. Clark did seem hopeful that we were on the verge of a breakthrough, as do I. However, we are going to have to get our heads away from thinking about machines and energy in “gear-head” terms. If we can tap it, it will probably come from somewhere else.

I think that we already have a breakthrough of basically free energy. Wind power. The Earth is, in itself, a perpetual motion machine. It has wind currents and water currents that are self-sustaining because of the thermal dynamics caused by the gravitational interplay between the Sun and the Moon. This causes winds that don’t stop and currents that always flow. Now, we have tidal generators. One company (Verdant Power) has already put tidal generators in the East River of New York City in order to generate energy for Manhattan; they have similar projects starting in the St. Lawrence, Puget sound, and of course China (See here for more info).  Also, Vesta Wind Systems (VWS:Copenhagen stock price; a major player in the market) and Far East Wind Power (FEWP:OTC BB; a turbulent stock, but judging by its push into China may have a future if the country doesn’t tank the company) both are using these technologies. There are also a number of solar companies, my personal favorite being SolarCity, the company that installed the solar panels for Ebay and is creating a way to charge electric cars with solar power. Of course I love that they're doing it with Tesla Motors.  And they're one of many other Silicon Valley companies doing the same thing.

Basically, all this really means: We have discovered free energy. Not zero point energy, or perpetual motion, so to speak, but free, renewable energy. Yes, the wind turbines and solar cells cost money. You know what though? If you think that the person who does discover a over-unity engine will not market the idea and give it away like good ol’ St. Nick, you’re crazier than those who believe they’ve found it.