Monday, April 13, 2015

TheEEStory: The End

I started this blog about 8 years ago, it was just an experiment.  I had hoped EEStor's claims of a new type of energy storage device might pan out but it wasn't my life-long passion to find better batteries. Over the course of covering this story,  I did find a passion for improved energy storage and became captivated by all of the possibilities.

At some point, this became a bit of an obsession and my hope that EEStor had what they claimed probably outpaced my ability to generate a prudent amount of skepticism.  Fortunately, when I created the forums at TheEEStory.com, the skepticism came in ample supply from multiple contributors, some of whom came and left and others who just hung around.  But the largest source of  doubts about EEStor's claims came from time itself.

So, here we are now in 2015 and although we're told there might be something unique and useful to regular capacitors, no one is talking about the super-battery any more.  Well, to me, that was the justification for having a blog about this company and its claims. Absent that, it is just like any other company in most ways.  Of course, EEStor is also and will always be unlike any other company in how it was funded and operated and watched due to this blog in some significant way.

The question now has become is there anything here that's worth the time?  Ironically, the best thing possibly to come from this blog may be a fictionalized account of my experiences operating it in a television series I'm still helping Michael Blieden to create.   So that project will hopefully come together.  But if it doesn't, that's ok too.

It was recently proposed to me that possibly in the near term, I could take a tour of EEStor's facility.  Five years ago that would have been a dream come true but today, I don't really think I could work it into my schedule.   If I had to listen to Dick Weir's un-decypherable bullshit, I'd probably lose my lunch.

As for stressing over EEStor and looking for what's next, those days are way behind us and from my perspective, the whole thing has become a colossal waste of time and distraction.  To get to the heart of things, this blog has become to me personally a recurring set of disappointing developments.  It's impacted me emotionally and I used to be able to counterbalance that with enjoyment from the community that built up around EEStor. But that community has always been dwindling as it should from EEStor's failure to deliver on their self-set goals.

On top of this, I think eight years of emotional disappointment is just too much to continue to slow brew.  I have a lot of other things I want to accomplish in my life and maintaining a scientific debate community is no longer one of them.  It is just too distracting so take this for what it is: a bit of Spring cleaning in my life and my attempt to get my focus back.

So of course, no one will be satisfied with how this all ends up.  But in keeping with how I've done things from the beginning, I will end with some of my personal speculations and issue some new predictions.

First,  I believe Carl Nelson worked on a team at MIT under Arthur Von Hippel that discovered a capacitor effect which had off the charts measurements--an effect whose limits were not apparent to them then or to EEStor now.  I believe the MIT team couldn't control the effect with the manufacturing methods available at the time and had bigger fish to fry with the development of the digital age.   That digital age improved manufacturing methods and at some point Dick Weir and Carl Nelson set out to see if they could bring about the effect originally discovered at MIT.    Weir's ambitions were bigger than his technical ability and extreme narcissism drove Nelson out of the picture and left the technical development in uncertain hands.   To make matters worse, the controls Weir and team thought they had over the material turned out to be illusory.  What's left now is the possibility that the effects which are controllable are commercializable as well.

I definitely believe innovation in the capacitor realm could come from improved manufacturing methods.  But can it produce the type of super-battery EEStor proposed to build?  I don't know.  EEStor's work product thus far strongly suggests *they* can't build it.

What about all of the original intrigue with Kleiner Perkins and Lockheed hovering around EEStor?  Does it amount to much?   I can't rule out that an energy storage technology breakthrough would spawn a government lead secrecy campaign complete with counter-narrative, etc.  What I do believe now though is that EEStor is not in any way seriously thought of by Lockheed as possibly delivering a breakthrough of the proposed magnitude.

So for all of these reasons, I am declaring finally that T'day is the day.

-B


PS Ok, for those who must know, yes, I'm still fully invested and have never sold any shares.  Mentally, I've written it off as a loss but you never know!!!  MUAHAAHAAAHAHAHA!!!!







16 comments:

Unknown said...

What a load of BS.

B all you've shown with this blog post is you can't comprehend
PRs/Reports or understand presentations.

For example, you claim no one is talking about a super battery any more.

Uh, it's been repeated over and over the super battery IS still a
major goal. In fact IC said recently it was their "guiding vision and ultimate objective."

Much of this diatribe is you unfairly shitting on DW (probably out of spite and/or to piss off TW) and then you end with a big MUAHAHAHA and "you never know!!!"???

No offence man, but are you bipolar?

Ambulator said...

WalksOnDirt here.

Thanks for the wrap. Time to move on.

Fred Miller said...

Blogger I hope you have success with Blieden and he lets you rant about ganja. Weir is likely to die and get away with his scam, perhaps a little satire should be his justice.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the good times B. The Blog was a great place for community at one time and I gained much information and many friends through it then. But most people left your blog some because as you say it has been a long slogg of over promise and under delivery. But many are still interested but left your site because you did. Letting the ambiance decay and the place became full of loudmouth know nothings repeating the same tired BS with no room for discussion or civility. Kinda like watching a great house in your neighborhood where people meet to discuss issues turns into a crack house full of undesirables, its time to tear it down and end the blight.
BKK

Unknown said...

First time back to this site in a few years....and you finished it up yesterday?!? Wow... Really enjoyed the skeptical eye you held toward eestor's claims; it engendered oin me caution toward new battery claims, many of which never make it to production.

Regardless of EEStor's fate, the electric car revolution has begun; it'll just be faster/better/cheaper to the horizon.

Cheers! And Thanks!

Slicster said...

Oh my! What will Y_Po and other "loud-mouth know nothings" do with their days?

Thanks B for this conclusion of the reasons the site has closed. Perhaps it will open again when the "Super Battery" is born.

Ciao.

EESLICSTER

Brodie's Blog said...

Thanks B for the forum. Good memories and good debate.

Cheers, Horsthief

tyy said...

Well, as they say, there is a sucker born every minute. And more importantly, there are always those who always remain one.

The Bob Show said...

Sad to read.

Although my hope for EEStor made its turn into the negative a few years ago, I periodically returned to the site to review developments and to continue my education on matters scientific and green. This entire con game may have been an embarrassing charade by IC and DW, but it was still an overall positive personal experience for me.

Hope you look back one day and view it the same way, B.

I also hope somebody, at some point in the not-distant-future, solves the energy storage problem, whether I get rich off it or not (gotta say I made a few bucks along the way, but little compared to the hype.)

And I fervently hope the responsible parties at EEStor and Zenn see the financial losses and jail time that their negligence and fraud so richly deserve. Justice should be served there.

Thanks for the fraternity and education, B and Friends!

Best of luck, B.

Unknown said...

B - I enjoyed reading your blog...I had high hopes for EEStor as well....but - I suppose a lot of technology never pans out. Maybe in 5 or 10 years someone will come up with a Barium titanate Graphene X Particle mixture that really will make a super capacitor. Until then - it looks like we will have to live with various versions of Lithium Ion.

Thanks for the ride! EiEiO

paulcummings55 said...

It is not the end yet!

Sorry to see you close out the Eestory- but I understand that after a few years...it may be time to move on.

But the story is far from over, though it has changed from a Revolutionary product to one that is becoming Evolutionary. If they are successful in producing a competing capacitor, it will provide the funding for, and verify the basis of, an EESU in the future.

Unknown said...

Hi B,
Thanks for the blog! It was nothing but fun….aside from the infuriating debates and you know who's narcissitic personality disorder.
I have made great friendships here and I am involved in a terrific business start up because of these relationships. I will always be grateful to you for your hard work and interest in this story. Energy storage technologies can and someday will transform our world for the better.
Life is funny, we usually don't get what we think we want, but if we pay attention to Gods little jokes and challenges we sometimes get what we need.
Good luck with the rest of your life! It is a rich and fascinating life from what I have come to know of it.
Your Friend, Dave Merritt.

B said...

Muahaahaahhhaahahh!!!!

tess said...

is it possible the Lockheed martin a government contractor put a cloud over this....

tess said...

it is possible that Lockheed martin put a cloud hold over this company.....it is a government contractor.....they definitely like secrecy .....just wondering

B said...

No, it's not possible Tess.