First a little history. In the summer of 2006 I first came across the story of Steorn, who at the time claimed they had discovered a means of producing free, clean and unlimited energy. As I have always been hopeful that better energy technology would come along, the story caught my attention and I spent quite a bit of time on Steorn’s website, watching videos and reading their public forum which was my first introduction to a certain type of skepticism which is alive and well to this day — both on the E-Cat and Orbo front.
I was intrigued by Steorn, they seemed to me to be a serious company, and despite their rather audacious claims, I had high hopes that they would be able to deliver something useful.
I signed up to join the ‘SKDB’ the private Steorn knowledge base, designed for Orbo developers, and even signed an NDA regarding information that was available only in that forum. It was an active community of curious persons like myself, and some very smart people interested in science and replication of the Orbo effect. When I first became interested in Steorn’s technology it was all about interactions of permanent magnetic rotary systems, then it moved onto electromagnetic rotary systems, and then into solid state electromagnetic systems.
Quite honestly I didn’t understand too much. I was curious and mainly along for the ride. And Steorn never really revealed too much information in the SKDB — their goal seemed to be to let members figure out things for themselves with a few pointers here and there. None of the SKDB members that I was aware of ever built any working Orbo replication.
Along the way, Steorn had some very spectacular public failures, particularly the demonstration in London that failed to work, and a jury of scientists giving a verdict that they had failed to prove their claims. Those were disappointments, but I still felt there was reason not to write them off.
Then suddenly the SKDB was shut down, apparently at the demand of some partner that Steorn was working with. I’m not really sure when that was — I think it was sometime in 2011. After that, Steorn faded out of the public spotlight and I only heard snippets of information. They had developed a heating technology called Hephaheat, and had apparently entered into some partnership agreements, but I never learned much more than that.
Meanwhile, I had learned about Andrea Rossi and the E-Cat early in 2011, and became very interested in what I soon became convinced was a major technological breakthrough on the energy front, and I began this E-Cat World website. Like many people who followed the E-Cat story, I thought it would break out quite quickly, but most of us are aware it has been a long journey for Andrea Rossi and his team to move the E-Cat towards the marketplace, and while progress seems to have been made, we are still not there yet.
And now suddenly Steorn has appeared back on the scene, now offering a version of Orbo that I never expected could be possible: a solid state system that apparently produces a constant flow of electricity directly from an electret material (no more magnets) — a never-die battery. Of course with my background with Steorn I am intrigued, and so have put an order in for an O-Cube (thanks to the help of generous ECW readers).
My hope has always been that somehow a technology would appear on the scene that could take us away from the expensive, insecure, polluting centralized energy production systems we have today, and provide us with clean energy in abundance. Now it seems to me that we are on the verge of having two major breakthrough technologies on the market that could do that in LENR and Orbo, and in terms of having a working product available it seems to me that Orbo is ahead.
While Rossi’s E-Cat has been shown to have an incredible power density, to this point the only output we have seen is heat, and the first commercial plants will be to provide heat in industrial settings. Rossi has said that they have produced electricity in an R&D setting, but we are still seem to be quite a long way from having electricity generation E-Cat products on the market.
I would expect that the E-Cat could be used in centralized power stations to replace coal, gas and nuclear fission, and maybe it could drive smaller local power generation plants — perhaps even domestic units. But the revelation from Steorn is that it may be possible to bypass the need for any kind of external generation system with this new Orbo electret material, as it is claimed to provide a constant, inexhaustable supply of electricity exactly at the point of use.
If Orbo power density can be improved, I can easily see it being engineered into devices like computers, televisions, computers, lights, refrigerators, fans, pumps, motors, etc. that never need to be plugged into a power outlet, and which will supposedly never run out electricity — something certainly considered impossible by today’s science. If that could happen, I think it would be something more impressive than anything we have heard so far about the E-Cat or other LENR products. The need for heat varies with the seasons and geographic location, but in today’s world the need for electricity is constant and universal.
Currently the power density of Orbo is still pretty small, as evidenced by the first products that have been announced, so some major refinement will be needed before we can have the products mentioned above, but I would expect that if the technology works that this first version of the Orbo electret will be improved upon. Shaun McCarthy has said that power density can be improved with more advanced manufacturing techniques, but that would require more expense, and he hopes that they can get licensing agreements with companies who can further refine production techniques.
So all in all, I consider Steorn’s Orbo to be a serious potential competitor to LENR, and I think this is a very good thing. Competition is a major spur to innovation and it speeds up product development which benefits all of us. LENR and Orbo are both in the very beginning stages and right now we don’t know where they will lead. And who knows what other unexpected advanced energy technologies will come along.
While to me the signs look good, both technologies are still ultimately unproven in terms of having working products in the market. I am very eager to get my hands on the O-Cube. My order has been placed and once the O-Cube arrives, I plan to do extensive testing of it and report my findings on the site in detail. We’ll also report on what others are finding. And we’re only a couple of months away from possible positive results of Rossi’s E-Cat test, which could also prove to be very significant. We’ll continue to follow developments on all fronts in this very interesting time.
And as a heads-up to readers, this site may be getting a new name and web domain in the coming weeks to reflect the expansion of focus here.
