Two days ago on July 5th, the science world turned its attention to London’s Kinetica Museum to view the demonstration of Steorn’s ‘free energy’ technology (branded as ‘Orbo’) with a mixture of anticipation and skepticism. Unfortunately, Steorn canceled the demonstration at the last minute sighting ‘technical difficulties’.

Engadget, the premiere technology and electronics blog, is having a field day with this. Orbo hopefuls thought Steorn was waiting for the Live Earth Concert day to unveil the clean energy technology.

Steorn is a small technology firm based in Ireland. In 2006, Steorn claimed that it had developed a new, physics-defying, technology that produces free, infinite, clean energy. This claim, if proven, would violate the first law of thermodynamics and the law of conservation of energy, which establishes that energy can not be created or destroyed.

In explaining their claim, Steorn have further stated that, by ‘free’, they mean that “the energy produced is done so without recourse to external sources”. By clean they mean that “during operation the technology produces no emissions.” By constant, they mean that “with the exception of mechanical failure the technology will continue to operate indefinitely”. (Wikipedia Article)

In August 2006, Steorn took out a full-page ad on the Economist announcing their technology and challenging scientists to test it. (For the marketers here, a full-page ad on The Economist runs at about $160,000 USD for one issue). Since then, several PR stunts have been executed by Steorns contracted PR company Citigate Dewe Rogerson. (Click image below for full page Economist Ad).

With the cancellation of the demonstration, Orbo-believers have even less grounds to stand on, while the skeptics rejoice in “I told you so!” euphoria. As for myself, I am not sure yet if I should file Steorn in my ‘Crazies’ folder along with Raelians, Scientology, and MacDonald burgers that actually look like the picture.