Reply To: Repowering the electric utility industry

[Joeviocoe]

meemoe_uk wrote: I take it you are aware that the best contender for tapping zero-point-energy is…. Focus fusion research groups. Only they are capable of getting near the quantum critical electric field of 1.6*10^18 V/m via a collapsing micro-plasmoid. If Eric gets this new funding he’s after, I hope he can find time and money to at least do a small investigation into the application of dense plasma foci to tapping zero point energy. It’s the ultimate power source.

If Lerner were to even mention a side project involving Zero Point Energy… he will likely be accused of having lost confidence in Fusion, and just going after something even more far-fetched.

How much energy can be actually extracted (in MegaJoules) from 1 cubic meter of empty space??? Not much, even if free energy (no mass/energy conversion like fusion). Fusion is a MUCH better prospect as an energy source than ZPE.
Just because the infinitesimally small picojoules of energy contained in a cubic meter of space is completely free…. doesn’t mean it can be extracted, nor useful, nor preferred over larger amounts of power generated from a Mass=Energy conversion reaction like Fusion.