EEStor CEO Breaks Silence in USPTO Letter

EEStor Founder and CEO, Dick Weir has entered the fray concerning patent protection for one of his claimed 15 patent applications. The letter to the patent examiner covering EEStor's reveals more information on Dick Weir's background that until now has been laboriously pieced together by the good guys, known to some as a cadre of fanboyz following EEStor.

Here is the letter from Weir.

This is where you can sound off on Weir's competency and greatness, praised be his name.

Special props to Thailand based TheEEStory.com member, Mark for focusing his particular OCD on patent updates. Mark, we thank you for your affliction.

Penn State Unveils Capacitor that's a "cost effective alternative to battery solutions". Stanford in race too...

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 PSU 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. $1,000,00

The DOE announcement included several other interesting energy storage projects including one for A123 Systems earning $4.3Mil. Stanford University also received a grant for a technology that at least one EEStory observer believes is on the same path as EEStor Inc.

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

Here is the Stanford project description from the DOE website:

"Novel Battery: The All-Electron Battery: a quantum leap forward in energy storage In this project, researchers Stanford University will seek to develop an "All-Electron Battery", a completely new class of electrical energy storage devices for electric vehicles that has the potential to provide ultra-high energy and power densities, while enabling extremely high cycle life. The All-Electron Battery stores energy by moving electrons, rather than ions, and uses electron/hole redox instead of capacitive polarization of a double-layer. This technology uses a novel architecture that has potential for very high energy density because it decouples the two functions of capacitors: charge separation and breakdown strength. If successful, this project will develop a completely new paradigm in energy storage for electrified vehicles that could revolutionize the electric vehicle industry and establish U.S. leadership in advanced energy storage technology for electric vehicles."

Previously, I revealed that Kleiner Perkins paid Penn State University to evaluate EEStor's claims. Coincidence?

Lockheed Martin is Making Fun of YOU

You know who you are: an intense EEStor skeptic beating your chest in conjunction with the pure light of reason or a part of a cadre of EEStor fanboyz, beating your chests in conjunction with the pure light of reason or some blogger with a bag on your head, beating your chest in conjunction with the pure light of reason. ...in conjunction with this paragraph.

Lockheed Martin is making fun of you, kind sirs or maams.

After releasing their Smart Grid sEESUite amid a barage of online questions concerning EEStor and only EEStor, Lockheed marketing has made a conscious decision to "have a little fun" with the online characters following EEStor as evidenced in this new promotional video for sEESUite posted on Youtube a couple weeks ago.



Skip over to 3:18 of this video and have a look at the EXAMPLE ELECTRIC CAR. Yes, that's correct, it is a Zenn vehicle. Alert! Alert! sEESUite Smile Sensor shows a threshold violation and we will need to shut down this blog article immediately before we are overrun with...the pure light of reason.

Heads up to Lockheed: I am now a shareholder of Lockheed Martin stock. Convenient for the Annual Meeting of Lockheed Stockholders this week, no?

MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Someone better prep up Bob Stevens for some EEStor questions methinks.


Also, note to any EEStor fanatics. Rumor has it there might be another EEStor egg in the video. ;-)


PS: Thanks for the heads up from an anonymous reader!

Lockheed: 10 CleanTech Plays You Maybe Missed

If you have a copy of the briefing Lockheed's Jim Kohlhaas delivered at the Bloomberg conference last month, shoot me a copy.

How Will Sulgraves Partners' Mike Long Help EEStor?

Anyone who has followed EEStor over the years has probably scratched their head once or twice concerning their communication planning. The press releases in the past haven't been written for the average Joe on the street. Dick's a smart engineering type who likes to talk a million miles an hour because he's genuinely excited but no one would mistake him for a media relations or media communications expert. You might even look at all of it and conclude that EEStor just does not care how their communications come off where, under this view, if they simply produce what they claim, all of that will handle itself.

But, will it?

Everyone knows EEStor has assembled one hell of a team (Kleiner Perkins?, Lockheed, Mike Long) but it's not clear from a communications standpoint that they are leveraging these veterans of public facing statements.

But now we're coming to a crucial part of the story. There's nothing left to announce by EEStor accept for the goods (powder purity in the parts per bazillion is OUT):

energy density
UL certification
production capabilities
actual orders
facilities
new partnerships
etc etc.

Will it happen all at once? Is there an ordering to how it will come off? What should their message be and how should they deliver it?

To answer these questions, you have to have an intimate understanding of what EEStor's short term goals are--which I do not. They've stated their long term goals and no one is confused about that. But how do they get from where they are now to wherever an announcement containing all or elements of the above list can take them?

Well, as far as I am concerned, if your name is Mike Long and you are a partner at Sulgraves Partners LLC, then IT IS GAME TIME. Several weeks ago, Mike told me Dick Weir was the spokesman for the company and that he was comfortable with that. But, in the event EEStor goes into full reveal mode, many are going to be watching how the communications come out and whatever happens, it's going to reflect directly on Mike Long as an EEStor board member. That's my position.

Sulgraves Partners bills itself as a Strategic Communications firm "tested by experience on the front lines of the modern 24-hour news cycle" according to their website. If that is true and if EEStor is about to deliver a technologically revolutionary product, then my take on it is that Sulgrave Partners, specifically, Mike Long will need to roll up his sleeves. A colossal media failure --even with this company many have never heard of---will impact Long's credibility as a partner of a firm of that type. (No Pressure, Mike, but that's why you get the big bucks, fella).

My hope is that EEStor and Mike Long are discussing past case studies of technology companies coming out of stealth. Bloom Energy had a pretty good reveal from a media exposure point of view. But that model may not be what EEStor wants. They certainly don't seem to be at the same stage Bloom is at--of course, they started later than Bloom according to Dick Weir.
From the sidelines, you almost want to say, "hey, try to stay away from outcomes like those experienced by Dean Kamen's Segway or Transmeta both of which were overhyped and under-delivered. " But is analysis of this type occurring at EEStor? Only time will tell.

My hope for EEStor is that it modestly announces its accomplishments which will establish finally true credibility with undoubtable 3rd party validation. I hope the message includes product specs, production expansion metrics/timeframes and new agreements. Nanosolar invited the media into it's factory. I don't think EEStor needs to do this but it probably wouldn't hurt to allow at least one member of the media to obtain a tour (maybe without a camera) and be allowed to write about the experience (similar to some of what the Canadian financial firms were allowed to do last year.) BTW, I'm not really angling to be that media source. I think I'd actually prefer it come from elsewhere--a legitimate media outlet for example.

In any case, what I do want the opportunity to participate in though is what will hopefully be a limited number of media interviews with Dick Weir to gain some insights on what it's been like to be cooped up in that tiny building in Cedar Park for the past 5 yrs trying to achieve something significant and meaningful.

So, in closing, if you're me, then EEStor Inc. and Sulgrave Partners are tied at the hip currently.

But what about Kleiner Perkins, won't their credibility be affected by the manner of the reveal? Don't they or shouldnt they have skin in the game? My take is that I actually hope they are not involved given a lot of the negative attention they've received with their investment companies obtaining all of this federal spending in what should be free markets. Why would EEStor want to be associated with financing Kleiner's risky ventures with public money that would be better spent on overall market segments via tax credits than betting on individual firms. I predict that these federally funded future failures (FFFF) will turn into it's own negative media storm. Take Fisker for example: do they have an agreement with EEStor or Zenn? Don't count on it. Why would they--because of all the fine work Kleiner has done for EEStor? (I don't see any supporting evidence of this). Someone correct me if I'm missing something.

10 Things You Can Do To Prepare Yourself for EEStor's Reveal

The typical complaints of NNNN are circulating again over at TheEEStory.com. While everyone is focused on when we might learn something new from EEStor, it seems more useful to me at this point to take a few moments to consider possible preparations you can make now to maximize your enjoyment of the reveal. These recommendations are not guaranteed to take you directly to happiness but they may just come in handy.

1) Discuss the possibility of strange behavior with your family and friends

Do yourself a favor and let your family and friends know that at some point in time---you don't know when---perhaps soon--you may just have a few occasional strange outbursts of emotion. Let them know this is in reference to a new type of battery which ordinarily wouldn't yield such behavior but ask them to be patient and allow you to explain. Then just say, "hey, I'm going to need some space to operate here. Please work with me."

2) Set aside some time to revel in the news

Start thinking about giving yourself some time to digest the news. You might want to just plan now to take a couple days off to walk around unshowered, zombie-like with a goofy grin on your face. It's okay too if you allow yourself to have a good stiff drink at 10am if the situation calls for it. Don't fight it. Give yourself advanced permission. Remember, you deserve it as you've dutifully watched the emergence of every new EEStor detail on my websites largely during your working hours.

3) Be ready to travel

Once reality sets in, everyone will want to travel somewhere to gather together and hug everyone else, drink, laugh, snort MUHAHAs, smoke cigars, take pictures with bags on their heads, dance around in a congo line and in general dork out with other EEStor enthusiasts. This could take place any where but Austin is the likely destination for obvious reasons. If you need to set aside some funds to jump on a Southwest flight, start pricing out options to get to Austin. Hotels, campers, tents....you know where you like to crash, so look into it.

4) Visit a medical professional

It's been pretty tense following EEStor. While you think now that a reveal might give you peace, it may also elevate your blood pressure unexpectedly. If you are a tad older or younger, you might want to talk to your doctor about this. Tell them you think good news may be around the corner and that you want to make sure you are healthy as you accommodate the information. Who knows, they may advise you to begin meditating or increasing your cardio.

5) Think about your financial plan

I don't give financial or investing advice. But I do recommend you talk with a professional before you do anything crazy. (see #4) A world with a verified functional EESU is a very different world indeed with a plethora of possible impending changes. For example: some die hard EEStor followers have placed short bets on stocks like A123 Systems. Again, I don't offer advice. I'm merely drawing your attention to the idea of being smart by letting someone else do the thinking for you.

6) Don't go changing

There's probably going to be a very strong temptation for you to consider the EEStor reveal as an opportunity to completely change your life. After all, if energy storage is changing--finally, after 100 yrs of little advancement--then maybe you can change too. Again, be careful here. If you must know, I like you just the way you are insofar as I don't know much about you. That works for me if it works for you. Another approach may be to channel the inspiration for self-improvement into the inspiration for forcing others to improve. After all everyone else needs to change more than you, right? In fact, sit down and pen a book titled, "I'm Going To Make You Self-Improve Whether You Like It Or Not."

7) Don't forget about the blogger

It's true. This whole emotional roller coaster you've been riding for the past two years has been courtesy of moi to some degree (even though I dont make electric cars or batteries). You're probably going to experience some pretty intense feelings towards me. Mostly, gratitude for capturing your interest by documenting this interesting story. Some may struggle with formulating a proper apology. Carefully think through what you want to say to me and how you should say it. If I may, to establish a conceptual boundary for you: there will be no need to send me a note saying, "Je t'aime mon petit poulet." I much prefer donations to Nymbani to thank you's though....as I've always said.

8) Select Music

Musical tastes vary but the concept of a victory song is universal. It may be useful to you to spend some time selecting a series of musical pieces that will allow you to maximize the celebratory mood. After all this will be an emotional event and music allows us to fully experience it. So, go ahead and put on a few tunes and practice possible outcomes in your imagination. Don't overdo it though as you dont want to burn out before the big day.

9) Make safety part of your plan

You've made it this far. Don't take your eye off the ball and fail to consider safety. Most accidents occur when people aren't paying attention. Tell yourself now that it's ok to celebrate but not to discard safe practices.

10) Become an EEStor activist

If they have it and it's cheap, we're going to need to make it known widely. Collect your thoughts on your own personal communication plan--who will you tell & how. Emails, faxes, mailings, banners, etc. There are plenty of ways to communicate. Select what's best for you.


Inna de bag, mon.

Credibility Questions Emerge Over Kleiner Perkins' Involvement with Terralliance

Although it's been pointed out several times previously that not every Kleiner Perkins investment yields a win, many still believe Kleiner Perkins' involvement with EEStor provides credibility. But a new article penned by Adam Lashinksky about a firm formerly known as Terralliance challenges this belief. Lashinsky makes a compelling case that relying on the due diligence of firms like Kleiner Perkins or Goldman Sachs is not without risks.

The whole story is, quite frankly, hugely embarrassing for Kleiner Perkins since it seems to show that if you are good at weaving stories regarding fantastic returns on investment, you may just be able to shake close to $100Mil from Kleiner despite any of the consultants they hire to vet out your claims. Billionaires with slightly above average interest in the likelihood of success with investments with Kleiner should pay close, very close attention.

First of all, things have gone so poorly with Terralliance that they changed their name to TTI Exploration. The old Terralliance website doesn't even redirect to the new one. EEStory followers will also note that the Bio for Kleiner Perkins' appointed CEO, Mike Long no longer mentions EEStor as it did when it was on the former Terralliance website.

The similarities and differences with EEStor are worth noting. TTI's founder, Erlend Olson is depicted as a persuasive dreamer who is better at locating investor money than oil, which is what his technology was claimed to do ( a claim the new website maintains). The same can't exactly be said of Dick Weir who only accepted $3Mil of Kleiner's money but whose claims of grand outcomes is certainly on par with Olson's. (it's worth remembering here John Doerr's much written about and touching story about being inspired to invest in green technology after his daughter asked him what sort of planet she and her children would inherit... in light of the enormously disparate investments in TTI ($93Mil) & EEStor ($3Mil) ). As for other differences, EEStor, unlike TTI, has pursued a path of protecting it's intellectual property with patents. According to the article, TTI's founder not only didn't file any patents, he also must not have written much down which brings us to the climax of an apparent trainwreck.

Seems everyone is suing everyone associated with TTI or Terralliance. Kleiner is trying to sue the founder. Investors are suing other investors. It's all so disturbing that it's now little wonder so many Kleiner firms have sought Federal funding lately. Surely the due diligence of career federal government bureaucrats cannot equal that of competent Venture Capital firms? And if they can, surely any ensuing lawsuits won't be as formidable as those lodged by disgruntled investors.

Is EEStor another Terralliance waiting to happen? I suppose asking KPCB that question is a no-go.

--eestorblog@gmail.com

EEStor's Dick Weir Talking Again: EEStor has 5 Patents Now

A renewable energy blogger I correspond with occasionally shared with me details of his recent interview with Dick Weir taken on Wednesday, March 24th 2010. He had no current plans to publish it because the topics he was mainly inquiring about did not receive comments from Weir.

In the interview, Weir made several comments on a number of other topics however.

1) Weir feels strongly that the release of his audio to the Internet was "a lousy trick" and "probably illegal."

2) EEStor now has 5 patents. (a quick poll of some TheEEStory regulars suggests only 4 are publicly known...speculation is that this might be the grid leveling patent but there's no way to know for sure)

3) After making clear that it was not his place to comment on Bloom Energy (instead recommending people talk to Bloom or Kleiner Perkins), Weir stated that "they put a lot of money into it. I've spent much less time and a fraction of the money" implying a direct comparison of the value of EEStor over Bloom. The blogger taking the interview suggested Weir was saying more about Bloom than he wanted to say and sternly broke off his comments by referring him to Bloom.

4) Weir was adamant that EEStor has never published an official statement of EEStor's development schedule. "People say we're late. We're not late! Zenn put out some things but we didn't authorize those statements." While it's true that EEStor has never published a schedule, it's also true Weir has made statements about timing on multiple occasions to multiple reporters. As to whether EEStor can be praised for rapid development, the only evidence we have on that is public statements made by Ian Clifford. Without knowing where EEStor is in it's development, we can't yet say whether or not it's true.

5) Weir insists EEStor's PR strategy is a no-hype strategy. He feels there are many "rude remarks" about EEStor on the Internet which are probably coming from competitors. He says that "there are knowledgeable people" who say many complementary things about his EEStor work.

6) EEStor's current published certifications of their work were not paid for by EEStor.

In another interview this past Friday, theEEStory.com regular Larry visited EEStor and Weir offered the following comments:

7) on Carl Nelson's illness: he is feeling better.

8) Weir stated he alone was the chief technologist at EEStor but assisted by many competent people.

9) Larry mentioned to Weir that Ian Clifford recently stated that he has no doubts about the viability of EESU now. Weir replied to say that Zenn does not speak for EEStor.

10) Larry also reminded Dick that he has stated the R&D at EEStor was complete to which Weir replied twice, "What?!"

Just a friendly reminder to anyone curious about this: it is my personal recommendation that people not visit EEStor without EEStor's express invitation. It can be perceived as harassment and you might even have the police get involved. That, of course, is entirely EEStor's call.

Zenn's AGM

I was disappointed by the AGM. I think the target should have been:

1) say a few encouraging words about EEStor progress that is tangible yet respects the NDA

2) say a few encouraging words about success marketing Zennergy to the automotive market

I think the market opportunity discussion was not as important as expanding on the facts surrounding marketing it to potential automotive customers. Innocuous facts like, number of meetings, number of repeat meetings, etc seems like it would have been helpful. Interested parties aren't asking for highly secret information---anecdotes of a generic nature would be very helpful but not harmful.

Concerning the alleged harassment case: it does not appear that the correct facts of the case were actually brought to light in regards to the human rights commission. Keep in mind Zenn that the best way to put something behind you is to not create new opportunities for additional questions.

In my unhumble opinion, the single biggest challenge for Zenn at this point in time is to prove that the burn rate is actually accomplishing something tangible and concrete when placed against the backdrop of the fact that no one knows when EEStor might announce something. Also, there seems to be no sense of if the wait for EEStor might be 30 or 90 or 240 days.

So, to prove the burn rate makes sense, someone needs to elaborate on the "outsourcing" that is currently occurring. That is a very mysterious destination for investor funding at the present time and I'm sure if a bit of information could come out about it, it would be well received.

Finally, I think the missed opportunity to provide an encouraging message at the AGM is a direct function of the distraction caused by mishandling the harassment case. This needs to be placed in the rearview mirror as a much accelerated pace. Had the AGM gone over better with me, maybe it would have convinced me it is NOT a distraction.

Note to Rick McGraw: hope you're feeling better today. Shoot me a copy of your Doctor's permission slip. Thank you.

Gigya Reading My Email?

Gmail informed me today that someone from this IP address attempted to access my email:

74.120.148.102

The registry shows the IP belongs to Gigya Inc. From their website, we learn this:

Who We Are

Founded in 2006 by a team of Israeli technologists, we are experts in how people interact on the web, both with content and each other. We have focused since our inception on simplifying the connection process between our clients’ websites and the social networks and on enhancing the resulting connected experience at every level to grow your online business.

Ok, Gigya, sounds great but let's not incorporate my email into your system, ok? Here is the screenshot from Gmail:

Let's see, should I tweet about this now and link to it from Facebook? :-)

Also, I sent a note on this to abuse@gigya but if anyone wants to work with me on this from Gigya, here is my email address: eestorblog@gmail.com I'm happy to work with you and google to resolve this.