DOE Releases EEStor FOIA Response

According to records released today by the Department of Energy Sandia Labs,  Dick Weir is a bit of a tease. In emails between EEStor and DOE, we learn that in the Spring of 2010, Dick Weir re-initiated contact--via phone-- with Sandia Labs energy storage testing team then lead by now retired John Boyes.  EEStor was seeking a "witness test" of a "test capacitor" subjected to the following tests, "energy density, specific energy, weight & volume over a specified temperature range."   Sandia initially agreed but after some internal discussion spawned by an email from DOE energy storage lead Imre Gyuk,  a decision was made to not associate Sandia's stamp of approval via a witness test.  Instead, Sandia proposed to EEStor that they would need to have a sample delivered to Sandia for testing and they provided EEStor with a rough overview of what would be tested and how.   Dick Weir responded to this by agreeing to provide samples for testing at Sandia but first invited them to visit EEStor facilities for an introduction and overview of his technology.   Sandia agreed to visit EEStor with the understanding that no certification would follow regardless of their impression of what was transpiring there and that that would only follow from actual testing at Sandia facilities.   The email trail goes cold at that point and when I spoke with various persons involved months later, they said EEStor simply never followed up and set a date.  Is that still the current status?  I think so but don't know for certain...if anything came together, it apparently didn't generate an email trail.

The release mirrors the AFRL FOIA released last year in containing occasional jabs at EEStor credibility but in a much more professional manner.   The emails show Sandia as curious as one might expect but as out of the loop as everyone.

The records also show that, at some point in 2008, Zenn Motors initiated some dialogue with Sandia about possible validation testing of EEStor technology.  Again, that tapered off as well with no result.

One interesting exchange with DOE came in March 2009 from a former participant at TheEEStory.com known as MilitantSkeptic but who uses at least two aliases, Tim Stradinski and Tim Adudell. He identified himself to DOE as the owner of a "wind turbine manufacturing company in the US." He was writing to them to let them know that "there is a group of people using the US Department of energy and Sandia as a tool in a stock manipulation scheme."  This email was sent on the same day I published this article...the facts of which are validated by some of the records released today.  ;-)

Other than that, it would appear we have yet another interesting set of documents to peruse but not the concrete info we had all hoped could shed some definitive light on EEStor.   If the release does not stimulate your imagination, take a look at the very thorough letter regarding what records were withheld and why.  That ought to tide you over for a week or so. :-)

Another interesting question you might consider is why did it take Sandia over a year to provide this response...300+ days beyond the legal requirement?

Here are the records:

 DOE EEStor FOIA Response. 


Incidentally, today marks roughly the 4 year anniversary of my blogging illness associated with EEStor.  Thanks to you Mr. & Mrs Reader for making this fun for me even without a publicly released working prototype.

For EEStorians Old News is New News

Rep. Bob Inglis

Three years ago, the US House Committee on Science an Technology's Subcommittee on Energy and Environment (deep breath) held a hearing to learn more about Energy Storage for the purpose of drafting new legislation in hopes of spurring development.   Among the witnesses called before the subcommittee was Ms. Patricia Hoffman of the Department of Energy.  At the time, she lead R&D efforts in Electricity Delivery & Energy Reliability office. Today, she is the Assistant Secretary of that office meaning her boss is Kristina Johnson, Under Secretary of Energy who reports to Steven Chu.  (another deep breath--still with me?)

Department of Energy FOIA Requests

Do you know what your Department of Energy is up to these days? You should if you desire to stay informed at this peculiar time in history where our dependence on fossil fuels is so directly tied to our economic security. There's a lot of good intentions out there floating around in the form of stimulus funds geared towards Energy Independence and Clean Tech. But, what are the people who we have entrusted to safe guard our energy interests actually doing?

Find out yourself by filing a FOIA request. If you are a US Citizen, you have a right to access federal agency records such as those at DOE within 20 days of receipt of your request. Here's a link to the DOE FOIA webpage.

I'm a little troubled that a recent FOIA request to learn the list of applicants for some DOE advanced vehicle funds was turned down due to exemption #5 which clearly does not apply. But maybe you will have more luck.

What harm could be brought by simply learning who has applied for stimulus funds? No need to examine the applications themselves which contain possibly proprietary information. But a simple list of who applied doesn't hurt any entity--public or private. Maybe you see it differently...as is your choice.

Here's another hopefully unrelated database: http://www.opensecrets.org/

Now that you know you have all of this power over interesting information, I invite you to make up your own conspiracy theories. Have fun, kids!