Lockheed Martin to help manufacture EESU's? Probably. In Georgia? Maybe.

According to three separate individuals with unverifiable sources, Lockheed Martin will manufacture or assemble EEStor military EESU's at manufacturing facilities in Marietta, Georgia.  (see also)  A quick sweep through a series of regulatory resources including the Environmental Protection Agency's permitting databases could not support the claim.  Furthermore, the sources would not ID their Lockheed-Martin-aware counterparts who were offering this up date on Lockheed's plans with EEStor.   Yet, each source arrived at the same information (with one also saying a facility in Alabama may be involved.)   My only confidence in bringing this information to light is that the original sources appear unrelated to each other and claim familiarity with different parts of the organization.   Also, the sources I interacted with have been reliable in the past.    But,  since the underlying original sources are unverifiable, I can't rule out that this is a rumor with a single nefarious origin. ...but I don't think so.  

In the meantime, Lockheed Missiles and Fire Control continues to ramp up their push into Power Management with a new series of marketing collateral claiming wondrous new super powers.  (great videos guys, where's the product?) The intelligent microgrid solutions appear to combine traditional power management with network based sensors that do for power what routers/switches do for network data, ie, provide intelligent monitoring and failover.  The systems also allow for positioning of monitoring and measurement capabilities.   Are batteries and storage touted in the videos?  Not really but wind mills and solar panels are highlighted, both of which aren't real yet (without batteries) according to Vinod Khosla and Dick Weir in remarkably similar remarks captured about the same time a year ago.  (see VK's google speech and DW's leaked audio--search for it).

In one of the new brochures, storage is flagged as being available via "Multiple Technologies."

The idea that Lockheed will take control for part of the steps required to create DoD/DHS EESU's is plausible to me.   First, Lockheed is one of the largest manufacturers in the world.  Secondly, they offer manufacturing support services...and claim expertise in this area.   See especially, their Build-to-Print Manufacturing Capabilities brochure.   They also tout their ability to assist with offshoring of work, thus, slightly forgetting who they are working for apparently...stuff for a future rant.

If it turns out that Lockheed has cozied up to EEStor and is causing them to prioritize around defense applications rather than Zenn Motor's automotive applications, it raises the question why.   There is likely a good reason for this.  From Dick Weir's perspective, Lockheed is winning the quiet game against Zenn.  Lockheed has somehow managed to keep their executives confined to incomplete thoughts and smiles while Zenn has until only recently (say around January 2010) begun to play the game as well.   Personally,  I do not like the quiet game.  No, not at all.

See bing for further visuals.