UTC Linas your assumption that extracting useable energy from the vacuum has to be something for nothing strikes me as odd Solar power wind power and tidal harnesses are just as effectively something for nothing yet nobody argues that they violate thermodynamics Forward s device demonstrates that extraction of energy from the ZPF is possible without violating thermodynamics and this result is confirmed by Cole Puthoff later The zero in zero point energy is really arbitrary with the Dirac Sea and particular geometrical configurations of matter can create negative energy densities as in a Casimir Cavity thus providing a potential energy gradient for energy extraction 21 56 18 January 2008