Renewable Energy Claim Reminds Us of Turtles

A friend writes, “Here’s a really beauty for you to debunk on 2GreenEnergy. I got an email from these guys today and belly hurts from laughing so hard at the magical ability to extract more power than is put in, as well as the misunderstanding of units.”  

Right, they don’t seem to know the difference between power and energy, which, though common among uneducated people, is a really bad sign for purported investors in the energy field.

They put water in a tower, and run it through a turbine at the bottom.  Of course, that’s fine, as long as you somehow get a fresh supply of water in the tower with no energy required to get it there, or the laws if physics don’t apply in this particular tower.

I’m reminded of the old discussion where a sage is explaining his pre-Newtonian theory of astronomy:

Sage: The Earth rests on the four huge elephants.

Student: What do the elephants rest on?

Sage: The back of a giant turtle.

Student: What does the turtle rest on?

Sage: Oh, it’s turtle all the way down.

And there’s the explanation here: turtles.

What’s also outrageous is the claim that the power utility in Holyoke, MA has agreed to a deal with them.  You’re telling me that no one in that organization has a 5th or 6th grade education in science?  That’s just as incredible as the claim about the system itself.