In the past year yet another technology that seems to produce cheap, pollution-free energy has emerged. If this technology proves viable, it could join with cold fusion and hydrinos as an alternative to the combustion of fossil fuels. For several years now, I have been reporting on the progress in the development of cold fusion, or if you prefer Low Energy Nuclear Reactions, and a second technology developed by Blacklight Power, which is a method of compressing hydrogen atoms while releasing large amounts of energy. I realize that many of you have trouble accepting the validity of these technologies as they appear on the surface to be in violation of some key principles of currently accepted science; however, progress in these technologies keeps being made and so far there is no definitive evidence that they are not valid.

At first glance, this third new technology sounds ridiculous for it seems to be a form of perpetual motion, which we all learned in 7th grade science is impossible. Production of energy from nothing but gravity seems to violate a fundamental law of physics which says that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only transferred into another form. The people developing this technology, however, say that its basis “is the use of the laws of buoyancy in conjunction with a special generator. This is not a perpetual motion machine, but simply the use of energy differences between two systems.” This of course needs further explanation from scientific theorists once it is solidly established that the technology actually works.

This new technology, which was demonstrated last year in Central Europe, is based on buoyancy that as we all learned at the age of two in the bathtub forces objects lighter than water to the surface and lets them float. This technology is so simple that it makes one wonder why somebody did not figure it out 100 years ago for with the exception of a modern efficient electric generator it is mostly late 19th century – floats, gears, bicycle chains and compressed air.

The developer says that all one needs to produce electricity is a relatively tall tank of water containing a series of floats attached to a chain that allows the floats to move from the bottom of the water tank to the top, and when emptied of air, go down again in an endless circular motion. While dropping to the bottom of the tank the floats are filled with water, when they get there, the water is blown out of the floats by compressed air so that air-filled floats are constantly being buoyed up pulling the chain along with them. Upon arriving at the top, the floats are filled with water again, and then dragged to the bottom by the attached chain. There are detailed descriptions, pictures, and videos of the system in operation on the Rosch Innovations AG web site for those interested in better understanding how this technology works.

The constantly moving chain is geared to an electric generator, which drives the air compressor to force the water out of the floats and also produces excess electricity for any purpose without using any type of fuel or producing waste products.

The discoverer of this new technology seems to be a “club” in central Europe with the interesting name of the “Global Association for Independent Energy and Altruism” (GAIA). This group, which has put on numerous demonstrations of prototype devices during the past year, has partnered with a Swiss-based manufacturing company, Rosch Innovations AG with offices in Germany and Serbia, to build and sell these devices.

Another new company, GAIA Energy, has contracted with Rosch Innovations to build for resale 500 devices, which can produce about 5 kilowatts of electricity continuously and are suitable for home use. The first of these 5 kW units was demonstrated to the public this past week near Cologne, Germany. Orders have already been received for 350 units at about $20,000 each – expensive for a tank, some floats, an air compressor and a generator, but this is only the first iteration – wait until the Chinese figure this out.

The public demonstration of the 5 kW device, which lasted from April 25th to May 6th near Cologne, Germany, attracted nearly 800 visitors, many of whom had already paid a deposit to purchase the device and wanted to see a buoyancy generator in action. Needless to say, during the demonstration the Internet sites covering the event were rife with naysayers and skeptics claiming that the demonstration, which was streamed on live video, could not possibly work as claimed and that the developers were perpetrating a scam of epic proportions.

To counter this widespread perception, the Rosch company held a “measurement day” during which visitors were allowed to inspect the device and all its attachments closely, search for hidden wires which could supply it outside energy, and measure the current flows coming from the generator and going into the air compressor and the load the generator was powering. They were allowed to use their own measuring devices. This access reduced the complaints but hard core skeptics were still convinced that there must be hidden wires coming through the floor or through the braces supporting the water tank. To counter these charges, the company held a “disassembly day,” which was streamed on the web and attended by ten outside observers who closely watched the device being lowered to the ground and taken apart. No hidden wires, motors, or anything else suggesting that the buoyancy energy generator was a fraud were found. At this point the most vocal skeptics either melted away or had the grace to admit that the device seems to produce energy for as yet unexplained reasons.

So what happens now? GAIA Energy hopes to sell the remainder of the 500 devices it has on order by the end of the month and to start delivering them to customers for installation this summer. If all goes as planned, the first of these devices, that will produce about 5 kW, will be producing power in the next few months.

Rosch Innovations says these devices can be scaled to produce far more than 5 kW and is already at work on larger units. A 20 kW generator has been moved to the site where the 5 kW demonstrations took place and should be operational shortly. Parts for a 100 kW generator are also on site and will be assembled next. Rosch Innovations already has plans for commercial-scale power plants consisting of multiple water columns sunk into the ground and designed to be capable of generating up to 100 megawatts.

Unlike our other disruptive technologies, cold fusion and hydrinos, this one is almost childishly simply which should speed implementation. While no one is quite sure exactly why it works, scaling it to larger sizes seems rather straightforward so that before the year is out we should have solid proof that it is a valid technology which can be scaled to the size that large consumers of electricity would want. Rosch Innovations says a demonstration project is planned to be set up in Texas in the fall – perhaps we can all go and see it.