TheEEStory.com

Follow up investigation is making some progress.

Penn State Director for Dielectric Studies, Clive Randall

One of the claims made often by EEStor skeptics is that the science behind EEStor's technology is impossible. Capacitors, by their very nature, the argument goes, can't possibly achieve an energy density that exceeds batteries.

Is it time to safely relegate that opinion to myth?

Thanks to a Department of Energy news release covering several grants funded by the ARPA-E division, we learn that Khosla Ventures is helping to launch a Penn State company based on innovative dielectric material which can provide a "cost effective alternative to battery solutions."

Not all of the facts are in yet. And the project only received $1Mil. However, the purported benefits of this "novel energy storage device" are to "catalyze new, related cleantech industries and contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases and oil imports."

In summary, we have here a 'battery alternative' called a "high energy density capacitor' which is not described as a power conditioning device (as many current automotive ultracap projects are due to limited energy density of traditional ultracaps) but rather as an alternative to batteries, aka, devices with much greater energy density that capacitors. For good measure, the category under which the project was chosen is called, " Batteries for Electrical Energy Storage in Transportation."

Here is the project description from the DOE website:

Recapping Inc.
(Penn State Univ.) Capacitive Storage: High Energy Density Capacitor
Recapping Inc. and researchers at Pennsylvania State University will seek to develop a novel energy storage device based on a 3D nanocomposite structure with functional oxides that provide a very high effective capacitance. The basic fabrication of the dielectric materials and devices will utilize traditional multilayer ceramic fabrication methods that will provide a cost effective alternative to battery solutions, with added benefits of exploiting mechanisms that could maintain higher cycling and possibly deliver charge with high power density. This technology hopes to create a cyclable and economically competitive energy storage device that will catalyze new, related cleantech industries and contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases and oil imports. $1,000,000

The DOE announcement included several other interesting energy storage projects including one for A123 Systems earning $4.3Mil.

The Penn State researchers responsible for the project have not yet been verified.

The service provider supporting TheEEStory's hosting company had an outage this morning (Saturday, February 20, 2010). Seems service has been restored.

Zenn Motor Company claimed victory today in the 2010 Winter Olympic stock downhill event. "It was like our skis never touched the ground," Zenn President Brian Cott declared afterwards in a Vancouver watering hole, disguised with a fake mustache. The race included over 80,000 securities from around the world. "We weren't expecting to enter the competition, it just sort of happened," remarked Ian Clifford, after knocking back two liters of Kentucky bourbon. "Tomorrow, we ski uphill," he continued. Back in Cedar Park, TX athletic trainer and spiritual EEStor guru, Dick Weir added, "At least they weren't blown to bits by terrorists seeking to prevent production of a single, measly, God forsaken pre-proto...er...pre-production unit." Analysts pointed out that unless Zenn Motor stock can create a new mountain, it won't be able to compete in very many future events.

I wanted to post a brief note to say thanks to all of you who read this blog and through your participation, give it so much value. We have heated debates and things get pretty intense, but I think that for the most part we all have good intentions, except for Y_Po and a longish list of others who don't agree with everything I say. But that's ok. What's important is we have each other...just as we've had for the past 18 months or so. If you believe the website statistics, or misinterpret them like me, you will see we've had almost 2 mil unique visitors....all lost souls looking for a tiny bit of hope and a longer charge.

I'm disappointed that we did not get an EESU in 2009 but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter much. I know Dick and EEStor have been working on completing outside lab testing and feel they are close to providing initial units to LightEVs and Zenn Motor Company. I believe Lockheed has had units for quite some time...as I've hinted and written about in the past few months, eg, the Levin/Lockheed thread.

So, all in all, thanks for making this fun for me. After all, isn't that all that matters--my fun?

MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAAHAHAHA!!!!!

Today at the National Press Club, Lockheed Martin held a hastily thrown together press conference to lay out it's vision for it's future in energy. Unfortunately, talking about EEStor was not on the agenda. However, thanks to a gutsy anonymous blogger, we have one hell of a post-event interview whereupon two of Lockheed's senior most executives demonstrate REAL TROUBLE hiding their enthusiasm about EEStor.

Additionally, the vast majority of questions submitted online during the web conference were on the topic of EEStor. Hello, Lockheed? Inquiring minds want to know. Get your game plan together already. Geeze.

Key take aways from the interviews:

1) Lockheed Martin Execs smile when you ask them about EEStor
2) They have trouble wiping the smile off their faces once they start smiling
3) The slightest hint of an EEStor concept brings the smile back
4) Why are they so happy?
5) What do they know?
6) Are you still reading this list?
7) Go to bed.
8) Now.
9) I mean it.
10) No, I am not the one who captured the video. ;-)

Draw your own conclusions. Important: doubleclick on the video below so you can see it in full screen. Blogspot is clipping off the side.

UPDATE: It was bad form on my part not to link to the place on the web where interested persons can watch the actual briefing Lockheed provided. Apologies Lockheed! Swept up I guess!

Lockheed Martin's National Press Club Energy & Climate Briefing

A group of Stanford University MBA hopefuls gathered together recently to waste each other's time by asking a collection of run of the mill dumb questions at a Kleiner Perkins & John Doerr presentation. From what I can tell by skimming through the video, no one at Stanford has any sense at all. Ok, there was a tiny bit of common sense in the crowd but it was starved for oxygen. So, non Stanford alums, walk tall today because you saved quite a bit on your education and are probably in much better shape as a result.

Yes, it is necessary to be critical of smart people who have an opportunity to ask smart questions but fail to do so! Had "the EEStor question" been asked, we might be in a more tolerating mood this great Monday morning! Now, let's show our Stanford friends how we get down to business.

Skip to 12:00 and examine the Green Fund Portfolio which includes the "stealth capacitor" investment.

We know who the stealth capacitor company is. One of the stealth battery companies is Fortu. Not sure about the stealth battery company and the stealth vehicle company.

A stealth vehicle company? V-Vehicle? Can't be them because they are out of stealth unless you are suggesting Kleiner partners are too lazy to update their powerpoint slides.

I was too lazy to watch the whole video. Please note anything I missed here.

Special thanks to an alert reader who sent this video to me!

2009 Candian Business Leadership Forum October 21, 2009

Thanks to the alert reader who brought this to my attention. Gulp! He said EEStor said "by the end of this year." Yipes! He also said in a laboratory environments, EEStor was getting a million cycles.

Aside to Ian: hey man listen, if you're going to wear that shirt, you have to... MUST NECESSARILY...also wear some cool shades. And no, you can't take them off during the interview. OK? Alright then, back to work. High five!

Interview occurred October 21, 2009.

A recent FOIA request was submitted by adept and relentless eestory user RT, in an attempt to learn about the existence of any documents related to past work performed by Carl Nelson or Dick Weir on behalf of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. If you recall, in the recent leaked audio, Dick Weir mentioned the following:

At TRW I invented the chip that went into Deep Space ... I worked for the CIA for Scientific Initiative. They needed a ultra high frequency channel. They came and recruited me. I invented that channel for them.

To respond to the FOIA, the CIA issued a Glomar Response which, as with past cases, always raises interesting questions about the implications of such a response. What does it mean? What does it imply?

Only you can decide!

Note: Here is the full FOIA document.

http://www.ptitest.com/

When Zenn Motor Company recertified EEStor's permittivity results, they chose PTI or Professional Testing Inc. to validate the test performed by Ed Golla. It was learned recently that they can also assist companies seeking UL Certification.

I spoke with spokesperson Jace Curtis concerning this today. Here are two mp3's covering that interview.

We agreed not to discuss EEStor or Zenn Motor Company in the interview.