Article From Irish Business Post
Steorn, the Dublin firm that claims to have created free energy, expects to take in more than €2 million this year from people paying to use its technology.
Sean McCarthy, chief executive of Steorn, said he expected at least 5,000 people to pay a licence fee of €419 to use the so called Orbo technology this year. The income from Steorn’s ‘developer forum’ would help it to break even this year, he said.
In 2006 the company claimed that its Orbo device could generate free power by using magnetism to multiply energy. However, a public demonstration of the technology the following year failed and its claims have been widely criticised by the scientific community, as the first law of thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed.
McCarthy said that about 7,000 people saw the Orbo device in action during a display in Dublin earlier this year, and it had attracted a million visitors online.
The firm opened its developer forum on April 1, a date McCarthy said was ‘‘tongue in cheek, classic Steorn’’.
He insisted last week that the system worked and had attracted interest from around the world. ‘‘We have had 15,000 pre-applications for developers’ licences; 50 per cent of those might not be real, but we are very happy with the progress," he said.
McCarthy said that the first uses of the technology were likely to be in basic applications, such as heaters. ‘‘That’s the easiest way to use excess energy. But in 18 months to two years, we expect to see it in things like chargers for mobile phones," he said.
McCarthy said he expected that Steorn would be ‘‘getting stick continually’’ over its free energy claims. ‘‘If I was watching it and wasn’t involved, I’d be saying the same things," he said. ‘‘It is a difficult thing for rational people to accept and, when something is vague, it is seen as some kind of fraud.
There is no rule book for something like this."
He said that the company would publish details of the technology behind the Orbo system on its website this week.
‘‘It is classical scientific and engineering content about magnetism and fundamental physics," he said. ‘‘It shows that what’s inside this is real."
Steorn’s latest accounts show a loss of about €3 million in 2008, bringing its accumulated losses to €12.4 million.
McCarthy said the firm should break even or make a modest profit this year, and had the support of its shareholders.
The firm has raised €16 million in funding, with all the backing coming from private investors, rather than institutions.
The company has 18 staff, down from a high of 22.
‘‘We had to take a little bit of pain, but we were lucky - we have raised a fair chunk of money and we got the money we needed when it was available," he said.
Article reproduced from here.
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's Orbo technology and its future enhancements.
