[thackney]

So, what if they're doing nothing more than tapping a previously unknown source of energy?

I mean magnets existed before someone figured out that if you spin a coil around them, some form of energy generated.

That doesn't make or capture energy. It transformes the mechanical energy used to spin the shaft to electrical energy in the wires. After losses for resistance and friction given up for heat. The inputs to the system equal the outputs to the system. New discoveries do not overturn basic laws; only use them in new applications.

[AFreeBird]

That doesn't make or capture energy. It transformes the mechanical energy used to spin the shaft to electrical energy in the wires.

Umm, so Magnetism has no inherit electrical properties, and the magnetic portion of the equation doesn't matter? When we generate electricity, are we really generating it or just the current to move it through the wires and do work for us?