Lockheed signs deal with EEStor

Lockheed Martin has signed a deal with EEStor to try to integrate the ultracapacitor start-up's electrical energy storage units into the defense contractor's products.

Financial terms of the agreement, announced Wednesday, were not disclosed.

EEStor is developing a ceramic battery chemistry that could provide 10 times the energy density of lead acid batteries at about a tenth of the weight and volume, according to Lockheed. A Lockheed spokesman said the company is interested in energy storage systems a soldier can carry, but also car batteries and energy systems for remote buildings.

Lockheed will spend most of the year evaluating samples it gets from EEStor and, if all goes well, it can start incorporating them into products. EEStor will begin to conduct qualification testing and mass production of the units in late 2008. As part of the contract, Lockheed will have the exclusive right to use EEStor products in the homeland security market.

The company also announced that former Dell Chairman Mort Topfer has joined its board. Last year, it was reported that Topfer left the board. The Toronto Star broke that story. (I wrote a story repeating what the Star said, citing the newspaper.) Reporter Tyler Hamilton says that Topfer did leave, but is now rejoining.

This marks another unexpected turn in the EEStor saga. The company has devised an energy storage device that it says can change the battery industry. Zenn Motors of Canada is an investor and wants to incorporate the batteries into its cars. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is said to be an investor.

EEStor, however, doesn't say a lot. In fact, the company rarely gives statements or issues releases, though it's one of the favorite topics of debate in the clean-tech world. For instance, EEStor didn't say it will begin qualification and testing on the battery units that are part of this deal. Lockheed did, in its own release (which, incidentally, doesn't include quotes from EEStor). EEStor didn't put a release out on the deal, though it put one out on Topfer.

Some people who have visited the company's facilities or reviewed its patents have come away believers. Others have become skeptics. EEStor had hoped to come out with products in 2007 but was forced to delay.

The Lockheed deal gives the company a shot of credibility. Critics, though, will likely remain skeptical until they see the devices. Defense contractors, after all, sign lots of deals like this.

[theBike45]

Here's hoping

"defense contractors sign lots of deals like this"
Sorry, but I haven't seen anything even remotely
as potentially life-changing as the EEStor deal
involving any govt contractor. If L-M says they are going into mass production in 2008, I'd say there isn't any longer room for doubt that the devices work. You don't start talking mass production for devices that don't exist.

[sanenazok]

What's "life changing"

about a non-disclosure agreement? Every corporation signs off on these all the time when investigating possible technology from a vendor. We signed off on an agreement when we wanted to evaluate a new source of TONER. That's very LIFE CHANGING, but only to our printers! Also in your euphoria, it's not L-M that says they'll go into mass production in 2008, but EEStor itself. Also, EEStor made announcements like this before, much like an end-of-the-world CULT.

There's a good reason why L-M hasn't made this announcement, either. If their products work, EEStor would be a paradigm-shifting company, but that's a pretty big IF. Signing an agreement to show the technology to another company is hardly an endorsement of its worth or performance.

[yjdmd1]

A more efficient and cost effective renewable energy system is needed

A more efficient and cost effective renewable energy system is needed to accelerate the implementation of renewable electric generation with added incentives and a FASTER PAYBACK - ROI. (A method of storing energy, would accelerate the use of renewable energy)
In California, you also have the impediment, that when there are an interruption of power supply by the Utility you the consumer cannot use your renewable energy system to provide power.
In today's technology there is automatic switching equipment that would disconnect the consumer from the grid, which would permit renewable generation for the consumer even during power interruption.
Jay Draiman, Northridge, CA

[afjerry]

New EEstor Patent - Tested Prototypes

WO/2006/026136) UTILIZATION OF POLY(ETHYLENE TEREPHTHALATE) PLASTIC AND COMPOSITION-MODIFIED BARIUM TITANATE POWDERS IN A MATRIX THAT ALLOWS POLARIZATION AND THE USE OF INTEGRATED-CIRCUIT TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE PRODUCTION OF LIGHTWEIGHT ULTRAHIGH ELECTRICAL ENERGY STORAGE UNITS (EESU)

http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?wo=2006026136&IA=WO2006026136&DISPLAY=DESC

The following data indicates the relativity permittivity of ten components measured at 85° C, then 85° C and 3500 V, and the last test 85° C and 5000 V. Components 850 C 85° C - 3500 V 85° C - 5000 V 1. 19,871 19,841 19,820 2. 19,895 19,866 19,848 3. 19,868 19,835 19,815 4. 19,845 19,818 19,801 5. 19,881 19,849 19,827 6. 19,856 19,828 19,806 7. 19,874 19,832 19,821 8. 19,869 19,836 19,824 9. 19,854 19,824 19,808 10. 19,877 19,841 19,814 Average K 19,869 19,837 19,818 Results indicates that the composition-modified barium titanate powder that has been coated with 100 A Of AUO3, immersed into a matrix of PET plastic, and has been polarized provides a dielectric saturation that is above the 5000 V limit and the relative permittivity is highly insensitive to both voltage and temperature.

[sanenazok]

Wow, tests in the lab!

You know that peppermint kills the HIV virus in a petri dish? Wow, running some tests in the lab ain't nowhere near having a functional product...

will exfoliated graphene give them competition or is their secret more in their dialectric?

AUSTIN, Texas, September 16, 2008 (ENS) - Engineers and scientists at the University of Texas at Austin have achieved a nanotech breakthrough in the use of a carbon structure one atom thick that they say could pave the way for widespread installation of wind and solar power.

The researchers believe their use of the new material called graphene could eventually double the capacity of existing ultracapacitors, which now are manufactured using an entirely different form of carbon.