Perhaps her message is not primarily whether the energy transfer concept will work or not,
but,
instead to not give up just because someone dislikes your idea,
and that "experts" should not be trusted further than you can throw them.
Yes, I agree. I thought the general message that engineers and experts are often blinkered in their thinking was absolutely spot on. Also, being naïve in one's approach can sometimes give a person an advantage compared to someone else who has been conditioned to reach (premature) conclusions through formal training. The other powerful message is 'don't give up' on innovation if you get a few knockbacks.
I'm basing my thoughts on having spent my entire career working in engineering labs exposed to people from all levels of expertise. Sometimes even the top experts can be horribly wrong and it gets worse if you get a group of them who agree with each other.
Some of the (many) keyboard/google experts to be found on internet forums will probably argue that the experts/engineers in question aren't competent in some way. But if the experts/engineers knew everything then there wouldn't be anything left to invent...