World: r3wp

Licensing

Henrik, in most cases that I know of patents do not allow you to 
"prevent" other people from benefiting from your inventions, it forces 
them to license the invention from you

and usually, the terms have to be "reasonable"

he has had a prototype unit (about 10kW if I recall) heating a building 
for about a year prior to the public announcement. The plant(s) (there 
will be one in Greece and one somewhere else, I think) coming this 
year, hopefully, will be the validation of the process everyone is 
demanding. If you read at the above links, you'll see that his intent 
isn't to stop the technology from being used by as many people as 
possible.

Any information about the costs?

yes, at the above links

by what I've seen, he wants this tech to be licenced as much as possible 
... I've read that he admits he must "give back to the americans 
who allowed him to do his research"


his own govt sent him to jail on previous "greener" energy attempts... 
which is downright imbecile.

the initial cost of the energy is supposed to be around one US cent/kWh

And no VCs jumped on the wagon yet? Can't believe it.

Robert, production is ~ 0.01/kwh   so very cheap...   and the minimal 
size is the actual device we see... 50x50x100 cm...  this is very 
cool... it means we could actually see "home-sized" units in time.

he's not looking for investment - other than for people looking to 
build plants

I would know a dozend companies that would use it immediatly.

I guess at a few million that would ;-)

production for units is 2011, with first shipments by year's end.... 
I mean... this is major.  its not "future" tech...

 its possibly the biggest energy revolution of the century, and it 
 went totally under the radar.

I would install it tomorrow, if I could.

here's an interesting interview with Dr. Edmund Storms (pretty big 
name in the field) on Rossi


http://coldfusionnow.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/edmund-storms-on-the-rossi-device-there-will-be-a-stampede/

me too, I'd install a unit for myself and my neighbor. with a closed, 
permanent loop for heating and cooling.

so far, his intent is to get it into industrial applications since 
licensing for that is a lot less prohibitive than for domestic use

but once the secret sause is out, I can't see how you won't be able 
to make this for yourself

sauce, I meant

also, the current machine is prohibitively "under performing" because 
by his own account... they have no clue what (rather why) its actually 
working.  so they are using extremely safe levels of operation which 
have a zero chance of becoming dangerous.   

they are still trying to provide the theory behind the discovery.


the current demonstrations provide a ratio of output of about 6-7 
times output energy wrt input.   I've read that they did tests up 
to 400:1, at which point explosions always occur... but by his own 
account, they will be able to significantly improve the "reactor" 
in the next years, when they start understanding it more.


operationally safe levels could be a lot higher today, given a different 
environment in which they build the reactor so I expect tha commercial 
products will double output within a very short period of time.

for now, getting the refined nickel dust will probably be the problem 
for "DIY" applications.  its extremely toxic, so its probably not 
commonlly available.

the sad thing is the Pons-Fleischman debacle hadn't happened (poor 
guys basically cut their careers short as a result), the filed could 
have been at this stage in the early 90's - with proper funding for 
research

meanwhile - we've kept on crapping on the planet, and even now, with 
the stuff happening in Japan, plans are underway in different parts 
of the world to move ahead with new nuclear fission reactors

above: filed -> field

the world is just waiting for a way to make energy without the requirement 
of special geographical resources.   this might very well be it. 
  nickel is a pretty abundant resource and there are mines all over 
the world.

plus, this system requires very little of the actual ore to work 
for months  (1kg/6 months) for the system they demoed.

and well, I hope there will never be a shortage of hydrogen  ;-)

I'm pretty sure that once the process is understood, other materials 
will be usable - at least that's what others seem to imply

I wonder what global upheaval this will lead to as economies adjust 
to account for this. Tremendous changes ahead - 2012? :-)

if, within a decade, it has be proven that the device is as safe 
as traditional oil furnaces are (we all accept that we have a bomb 
in our houses... so I don't see this as being any more dangerous).


I'd say that we are talking about a shift in the need for huge powerplants, 
in the long run.  if, I can use a kg of nickel for a few hundred 
bucks, to heat/cool my house and its water for a few years... why 
would I even consider using electricity/oil/gaz instead?

if everyone can basically cut his major energy costs by 90%, that 
means a sizeable reduction in grid energy requirements.

and reduced dependency on fossil fuels as well.

my fear is that the "nuclear" aspect of this process, especially 
at this time, will cause alarmists who don't know the difference 
between fission and fusion to oppose it

Isn't there some radiation in all nuclear processes?

That's why they put lead around it and measure radiation doing presentations.

It seems there is some issue with the amount of led shielding required. 
Normally, much more would be required than is used in the tests.

yes, there is radiation, but not to a degree that a small amount 
of shielding can't be effective at stopping it

some peope had, rightly, questioned the process being nuclear since 
there was no significant gamma radiation during the demo. Rossi explained 
somewhere that getting a radiation signature would give away the 
secret of the catalyst, so he made sure to cover up as much as possible

and I suspect the fact that there are gamma spikes at the start end 
end of the process are clues as to how it works too  ;-)

a CRT has significant radiation, but it is allowed in the home

anyhow, compared to pretty much any other energy source, on the merits 
of overall negative impact, the relatively small amount of gamma 
radiation, which can be shielded, should not stop the process from 
being considered

But you'll hear the alarmists. :-)

wrt public acceptance isn't going to be hard.   the system instantly 
shuts off if you remove the input current, so that a simple fuse 
in the system makes it highly safe, in fact much safer than any conventional 
fossil fuel furnace in case of appliance failure..  


my own furnace had a back-fire explosion two months ago...  this 
litterally ripped off and blew the whole piping leading to the chimney 
right into the opposing wall.

I guess there is a question of home-brew, poorly shielded impementations 
that could get out of hand if the intent is to go for the biggest 
output

but I don't think it'll be possible to stop that once this is widespread 
- there will likely be accidents

the real danger IMHO will be in the handling of the nickel dust. 
 so I'd bet a normalized "consumer-safe" rod will likely be built 
at some point.

people will be doing this in their basement, though - just like people 
like to tinker with anything, they'll do so here, even if it's not 
safe

because as soon as you impose too many middlemen in the process, 
you're driving up the cost, so people will want to avoid paying anyone 
they don't absolutely need to

I'll just wait for a blueprint in popular mechanics, before I build 
mine  ;-)