this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2025
117 points (94.0% liked)

science

23220 readers
517 users here now

A community to post scientific articles, news, and civil discussion.

rule #1: be kind

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
laverabe@lemmy.world
m3t00@lemmy.world
Joleee@lemmy.world
DeadPand@midwest.social
laverabe@lemmy.zip
117
Scientists build device to harvest electricity from Earth's spin (www.earth.com)
submitted 1 day ago by noumenon@lemmy.world to c/science@lemmy.world
24 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

A Princeton-led team has built a tabletop device that generates voltage directly from Earth's rotation through its magnetic field. While the power output is orders of magnitude too small for practical electronics, the breakthrough suggests Earth's spin could someday provide constant, fuel-free energy if the effect scales up. The team is now calling for independent labs to reproduce the results.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 6 points 22 hours ago

Anything is a better idea than this. An unpowered LED in a regular room will generate more electricity from light shining at it. An unpowered speaker in a normal environment generates more electricity from the sound waves that fall on it. A phone's antenna will harvest more energy from the signal it receives.

All of these options are horrendously bad and inefficient ways to generate electricity, and still all of them are orders of magnitude more effective than that thing.