EEVblog 1680 - Free Energy from the Earth's Magnetic Field? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 16, 2025, 11:50:52 pm
content: New research shows you can extract a tiny voltage and current from a stationary tube in the earth's magnetic field. Is this real? It is scaleable to be useful?Paper:https://journals.aps.org/prresearch/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.7.013285IEEE article:https://spectrum.ieee.org/earths-magnetic-field

author: Sensorcat
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 17, 2025, 11:55:33 pm
content: The IEEE Spectrum link seems to point to a different article.Regarding the research, I think it is an impressive work, because such research is about demonstrating that the previous theory, although almost universally accepted, was not entirely correct. Now the scientists have done their work and enjoy themselves. It is up to us engineers to make a working machine out of it - or not. I agree to your conclusion, Dave, but for a slightly different reason. Not the absolute amount of power generated counts, but the relative power compared to other harvesters. Since almost any conceivable practical environment has temperature differences to harvest from, one can use proven, available technology to generate much more power, simply by thermal EMF - as the primary effect, not the disturbance variable.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 18, 2025, 09:06:56 am
content: Quote from: Sensorcat on April 17, 2025, 11:55:33 pmThanks fixed.QuoteFemtowatts is still femtowatts.

author: richnormand
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 19, 2025, 09:56:04 pm
content: I really enjoyed this video. Thanks Dave.Agree with the scalability arguments but history is full of "useless at the time" discovered effects that ended up asMRI (NMR), quantum hall effect (metrology, gravity mappers), quantum entanglement (quantum encryption (actually used by banks now),quantum teleportation), superconductivity, radio comms, atomic clocks, idiots (as quoted in a paper pre WWII) trying to grow ultrapure crystals for decades (like germanium or silicon for example, you know most of IC electronics now).....I remember a letter to the editor in a local newspaper about a complaint that the National Research Council was investing and building a more accurate atomic clock instead of better welfare for him.. sent on his cell phone (every tower had a rubidium atomic clock for TDM) and his phone GPS (useless unless each satellite compensated for general and special relativity effects (speed vs gravity well)....So even if useless now I hope the experiment will be reproduced and confirmed.Now I do have a "beef" (too strong a word but please indulge me) with your title..."Free energy from the Earth's magnetic...."If we look at hydro energy, photovoltaics, wind turbine, wood burning for example we have these fuelled by the sun that makes it all possible. That energy comes from outside our "closed" system and is "free" from the sun.Other stuff like gas, oil is a similar argument but not easily renewed unless we wait millions of years (putting aside pollution and such).Here we are harvesting energy from the earth's magnetic field much like a dynamo/generator would do. That means a reduction of rotational speed or a decline in the magnetic field from the "load" as there are no restoration from outside the system to compensate....The rotation was initially from the beginning of the earth core and the planet as a whole but there are no outside continuous input. More like a magnetic clutch or regeneration breaking in EVs... If true it is a truly non renewable resource. At this point just a theoretical argument.Enjoy your videos of that type.Cheers and thanks.

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 19, 2025, 10:31:14 pm
content: idiots keep working on this physics crap instead of AI

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 20, 2025, 02:05:27 am
content: Quote from: richnormand on April 19, 2025, 09:56:04 pmThere is no such thing. If you mean quantum key distribution, that is more of eavesdropping detection.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 20, 2025, 06:52:53 am
content: Quote from: richnormand on April 19, 2025, 09:56:04 pmYoutubers have to pick titles approprite for people to understand, and for searches and the algorithm, so "free energy" it is, because that's the common parlance. Expecially for this type of energy from the earth magnetic field thing, i.e. the Tesla energy nuts.

author: richnormand
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 20, 2025, 02:37:32 pm
content: @BudThere is no such thing. If you mean quantum key distribution, that is more of eavesdropping detection.Indeed I should have been more precise in giving this example of esoteric research that was useless at the time but found use much later.For those interested here is a link to IBM:https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/quantum-cryptography“Quantum cryptography (also known as quantum encryption) refers to various cybersecurity methods for encrypting and transmitting secure data based on the naturally occurring and immutable laws of quantum mechanics.”There are several approaches to types of quantum cryptography:Quantum key distribution (QKD)“Originally theorized in 1984 by Charles H. Bennett (of IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center) and Gilles Brassard, quantum key distribution (QKD) is the most common type of quantum cryptography”Gilles Brassard from my neck of the wood.also see:Quantum coin-flippingLattice-based cryptographyMultivariate cryptographyHash-based cryptographyCode-based cryptographyIsogeny-based cryptographySymmetric key quantum resistanceI remember a nice demonstration of QKD using a free air optical link between two buildings on a campus a long time ago as part of my govt R&D job.Things have progressed a lot today.Cheers.

author: richnormand
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 20, 2025, 02:42:49 pm
content: @EEVblog:"and for searches and the algorithm, so "free energy" it is, because that's the common parlance"Point well taken.

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 20, 2025, 04:42:51 pm
content: Quote from: Sensorcat on April 17, 2025, 11:55:33 pmIn my university days, an eccentric engineer in the research institute, who lived close to Lake Michigan, had a scheme to harvest energy from the temperature difference between the Chicago sewer system and the lake.While not free in the true physics sense, that would have exploited heat energy from Chicago utilities through buildings that would otherwise have been wasted downstream in St Louis.

author: Lord of nothing
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 21, 2025, 07:08:00 am
content: How about using the Waste Products to create Gas?What I know the Sure System need to be vented to prevent an explosive atmosphere.Why not compress the Gases there and use them?

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 22, 2025, 02:15:37 am
content: Quote from: TimFox on April 20, 2025, 04:42:51 pmThere are tons of ways to "harvest" energy like this. The trick is making is practical and economical.

author: Haenk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 22, 2025, 09:03:07 am
content: (In German) My home town is scheduling a 400Million EUR investment into a gigantic heat pump:https://www.stadtwerke-flensburg.de/foerdepost/presse/grosswaermepumpe-johnson-controlsIn Denmark, a similar system (manufactured by a german company, mind you) is already installed and running.

author: golden_labels
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 22, 2025, 01:52:27 pm
content: Geothermal energy and waste heat use is not new and is working. The concept itself is fine, and it is well tested. The limitation are sources. Most of them are not viable for practical use and many viable ones are still much worse than the alternative options.It’s not “free” either. With geothermal energy the distinction is blurred. But it’s still much closer to how coal and natural gas are “free” by simply lying underground and we “only” needing to extrac them, than it is to solar or wind. The only kind of “free” there is, that apparently(1)it’s practically limitless. It is also a source of pollution, most notably CO2emissions and acidic waste released into environment. With waste heat capture, the pollution is embedded in hardware itself.A great example of waste heat use is district heating. Here (Poland) it’s a very common thing: a power plant dumps heat not into cooling towers, but uses it to heat steam in the city-wide distribution system.There are also attempts with using geothermal energy for heating directly. Lux Veritatis(2)owns Geotermia Toruń, which not only heats their own buildings, but is now in the process of being connected to city’s district heating system. Veolia Energia is now testing heat pumps that are extracting heat from Warsaw Metro’s ventilation system.(1)This perception may change in the future. We still don’t know the effects of increasing thermal conduction through the crust.(2)A Poland-based, multi-industry “charity foundation” run byfather-director Tadeusz Rydzyk.

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 22, 2025, 02:29:47 pm
content: “Geothermal” energy used to mean mining underground hot water produced by natural geological processes.Recently, heat pumps connected to underground water reservoirs have been called geothermal as well.They are both useful. Large underground reservoirs (not fed by volcanic heat) will tend to a temperature roughly the long-term average of the above-ground ambient temperature, so a heat pump for heating/air conditioning can operate efficiently between heat baths near the desired output temperature.