Experiment confirms electric power generation from Earth’s rotation

A team from Princeton University, including Christopher Chyba, Kevin Hand, and Thomas Chyba, has shown through experiments that Earth’s rotation can generate electric power as it moves through its own magnetic field.

For almost 200 years, scientists believed that Earth’s rotation through its magnetic field couldn’t be used to generate continuous electric power. This idea goes back to Michael Faraday’s experiments in 1832. A well-known argument holds that a conductor fixed to Earth won’t feel any net electric force from the planet’s rotation. Many studies have supported this view over time.

Chyba and Hand proposed that under specific conditions, standard assumptions may not apply. Their approach involves using a cylindrical shell composed of a magnetically permeable material. For it to work, two conditions must be met. First, the shape of the system must create a nonzero curl in the magnetic force. Second, the material must allow magnetic diffusion to be stronger than magnetic flow, which happens when the magnetic Reynolds number is less than one.

The researchers evaluated their hypothesis using a cylindrical shell composed of manganese-zinc (MnZn) ferrite, a magnetically soft material with low electrical conductivity and high magnetic permeability. The shell was mounted on a non-conductive turntable, allowing precise control of its orientation relative to Earth’s rotation and magnetic field. Voltage and temperature were monitored over extended periods using digital multimeters. To minimize experimental noise, the team filtered out potential sources of interference, such as thermoelectric effects, 60 Hz power-line harmonics, and radio frequency disturbances.

The findings of their experiment include:

1. Direct current (DC) voltage and current are observed only when the shell’s long axis is orthogonal to both Earth’s rotation vector and magnetic field.
2. Rotating the apparatus 180° reversed the sign of the voltage.
3. Orientations aligned parallel to either Earth’s rotation vector or magnetic field produced no measurable electromotive force (emf) or current.
4. A control sample using a solid ferrite cylinder (a = 0), otherwise identical in size and material, generated zero voltage in all orientations.
5. A MuMetal shell didn’t generate power, supporting the conclusion that magnetic diffusion is required.
6. The voltage and current they saw matched what the theory predicted.

To rule out site-specific interference, the experiment was replicated at a second location, which confirmed the initial findings. The resulting measurements aligned with predictions from a detailed model incorporating the magnetic Reynolds number (Rm), a dimensionless quantity used to characterize the behavior of magnetic fields in moving conductive media.

In all of this, the shell’s shape is important as it creates a steady imbalance in electromagnetic forces. This happens because electrons can’t move freely to cancel out the force caused by the shell moving through the magnetic field.

The experiment works by drawing energy from Earth’s rotation to create energy through magnetic braking, which involves the planet’s magnetic field. Calculations showed that the shell gains power while Earth loses a tiny bit of its rotational energy. But this energy is so small that it doesn’t have any noticeable effect on how fast the Earth spins.

It also addresses prior objections and negative results from earlier studies (Veltkamp and Wijngaarden, 2022) by showing that such setups did not meet the conditions required for the effect to occur. The current system satisfies both the geometrical and material requirements needed for voltage generation.

The authors propose that this effect could be scaled up. Making the system longer or linking several units together could increase the total voltage. Shrinking the system while improving its conductivity or magnetic properties could allow many devices to be packed closely for more power. Even though the voltages are low, these systems might be useful for long-lasting power sources where simple design and durability matter most.

References:

¹ Experimental demonstration of electric power generation from Earth’s rotation through its own magnetic field – Christopher Chyba, Kevin Hand, Thomas Chyba -Physical Review Research – March 19, 2025 – DOI https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.7.013285 – OPEN ACCESS