'Free energy' firm fails to convince scientists

Writing in the Irish Times today, science editor Dick Ahlstrom says:

 A much-trumpeted plan for limitless supplies of free energy has been dashed by the revelation that something cannot be produced from nothing.

An Irish company had promised it could deliver non-polluting, virtually cost-free power but an international jury said yesterday it did not work.

However the verdict has not deterred the company, Steorn Ltd, from continuing to develop a magnetism-based technology it calls “Orbo”. “It is a disappointment, but we had seen this coming for quite a while,” chief executive Seán McCarthy said yesterday.

Steorn took out an ad in the Economist a few years back looking to recruit an international team of scientists to review their device. But the panel has now announced that it is to disband, stating on its website: 

“The unanimous verdict of the jury is that Steorn’s attempts to demonstrate the claim have not shown the production of energy,” it stated. “The jury is therefore ceasing work.”

Steorn, which employs 22 people, remains undeterred - the company is inviting 300 engineering companies to sign a developer licence agreement giving them access to the technology.