PRINCETON, N.J. – Scientists from Princeton University and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have invented a device that seemingly generates electricity from the Earth’s rotation.
Although generally accepted theories show that generating electricity from a uniform field like Earth’s magnetic field is impossible, the team believes they have found a “loophole” that allows their device to generate tiny but measurable amounts of electricity.
If independent reviews can confirm the team’s work, they say the next steps to building a practical energy-generating device would involve miniaturization and scaling efforts, as proposed in a new paper detailing their current efforts.
Device That Generates Electricity from the Earth’s Rotation Joins Alternative Energy Revolution
The research joins a list of promising new approaches to generating electricity, ranging from “extreme enzymes” or other living organisms to “smart” windows and triboelectric-driven “rain panels” that generate electricity from raindrops.
Other efforts include generating electricity from radio waves, sweat, advanced metamaterials, and ocean waves, including an effort to produce energy from waves at the grid scale. One particularly novel concept uses the classic “drinking bird” toy to generate power with each dip of its beak.
In an email to The Debrief, Princeton University Professor Christopher Chyba noted that his previous work with study co-author and co-inventor, JPL’s Dr. Kevin Hand, was designed to explore the possible electromagnetic heating of astrophysical objects. That theoretical work, Chyba explained, was not intended to have any practical application.
“Curiosity-driven basic research is often what later leads to practical applications,” the professor said. “A lot of basic research initially seems disconnected from our daily lives—but it’s a key component underlying American science and technology.”
However, Chyba explained that as those theoretical studies progressed, the work “led us to begin asking questions that we then realized could be investigated in the laboratory.”
Building and Testing the Device Yields Positive Results
In a published paper outlining the team’s research, Chyba and Hand describe the theory behind their novel device, which generates electricity from the Earth’s rotation, construction, and testing. The basic idea is similar to how traditional power stations create an electric current by passing a conductor through a magnetic field. Theoretically, a conductor on Earth’s surface would move through some portion of the field, causing electrons to move and generating power.
Although previous studies suggested that building such a device was impossible, the team says that their theoretical efforts seemed to indicate that certain materials shaped into a cylindrical tube might channel the Earth’s magnetic field in a way that creates an imbalance in the electrostatic force inside the device. If their calculations were correct, the result appeared to be a roadmap to building a proof-of-concept device that generates electricity from Earth’s rotation.
“So, we built a small lab in Princeton to pursue these questions,” Chyba told The Debrief.
First, the team made a hollow cylinder from a soft, magnetic material containing manganese, zinc, and iron. Although it was purchased a decade ago, Chyba said the custom-manufactured MnZn ferrite shell only cost “about $400.” The team also built a customized wood “turntable” and mounted it on an MRI cart. Chyba told The Debref that the turntable guaranteed that the relative position of the meters, wires, and device did not change during rotation.
“The only thing that changes is orientation relative to Earth’s rotation,” the professor said.
The largest initial expense was for the three battery-operated data-logging digital multimeters, which the professor said cost about $1,500 each in 2016. The battery-operated meters would log data for five to ten hours per experimental run, with the experimenter typically returning around eight hours afterward to turn the lights on and log the data.
“I would estimate the total cost to date for the equipment in our laboratory purchased for this effort to be in the realm of $25,000,” Chyba told The Debrief. “However, most of that was devoted to exploring approaches that turned out to be inessential.”
The researcher cautioned that the photo of the device may be misleading since the experiments were conducted in a windowless basement room at Princeton “to exclude any possible photoelectric effect that could confuse the measurement.” The meters were also enclosed in boxes to prevent the light from their LCDs reaching the device.
After controlling for other effects that might give a false energy signal, the team measured the device to see if it was generating power. As predicted, they observed a tiny 17-μV voltage. While infinitesimal compared to traditional power generators, the voltage was unmistakable. Notably, the team says the device stopped generating power when its orientation was changed in relation to the Earth’s magnetic field.
“The voltage is 0 when the device is oriented with its long axis in the E-W direction and -18 microvolts when the device is oriented with the “red” end toward the north (we call this the 0 degree orientation),” Chyba explained, “but +18 microvolts when the “red” end is oriented toward the south (the 180 degree orientation).”
Replicating Or Refuting the Results
While the team’s decade of work seems to support their experimental findings, some scientists remain skeptical. Rinke Wijngaarden, a retired physicist, failed to find the same effect during his own 2018 experiments. In a story about the team’s latest findings, Wijngaarden told Nature that he has followed the research since 2016, and although he thinks their new device is interesting, he is “still convinced that the theory…cannot be correct.”
In that same story, Paul Thomas, an emeritus physicist at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, was more supportive, saying that he finds the team’s work “very convincing and remarkable.”
Chyba told The Debrief he is not currently aware of any other group trying to reproduce their results, “although that is the key next step.” He also pointed out that he and Hand emphasized this specific point in their paper’s conclusions, “and I very much hope that will happen.” Fortunately, the professor suggests that any University or research institution interested in recreating their work would almost surely spend significantly less than the approximately $25k his team spent throughout the process.
“I think the total expense to reproduce (or rebut) this experiment today would be under $10,000,” Chyba estimated.
Miniaturization and Scaling Up For Practical Applications
When asked to list the critical next steps beyond confirmation, Chyba said their latest paper includes “some discussion” of how their device might attain higher voltage outputs. The paper also provided several supporting equations that “show how to scale up the output” of their device. Still, the researchers say that the primary breakthrough that could facilitate creating a practical device that generates electricity from the Earth’s rotation involves significantly shrinking the primary components to more practical dimensions.
“To get to practical amounts of power, as we discussed in our 2016 paper, would likely involve miniaturization, in order to fit many such components into a reasonable volume,” Chyba told The Debrief. “However, there is a big difference between suggesting a path based on the theory and demonstrating that such a path actually works and could be practical.”
“Assuming the idea is corroborated, research and development by a team that could do this sort of miniaturization is a likely necessary step,” he added.
In his conclusion, Chuba highlighted the need for basic science research and pointed out how this work can sometimes create potentially practical applications, like their energy-generating device.
“Maintaining U.S. government funding for basic research is essential—and an investment in all of our futures,” the professor said.
Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.
