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Lockheed Signs with EEStor to Use New Ultracapacitor
Over a year ago, we discussed a start-up company, EEStor, that was making incredible claims about their new power source. Later, EEStor made waves with its bold predictions and secretive policies. Now, Lockheed Martin has decided to give EEStor a chance. The two companies signed a deal this week to use the new energy storage units in Lockheed's products. The folks at GM-Volt interviewed a Lockheed representative about the deal. The representative had this to say regarding EEStor:
"We've visited their facility. We were very impressed. They are taking an approach that lends itself to a very quick ramp-up in production. We've seen a lot of their testing and efforts to measure the purity of the powders that they use, and the chemistry. Well be working with them very closely this year to develop prototypes in certain pursuits."
They've missed the publicly announced milestone, and there is a lot of speculation about the practicality of the method. Don't get me wrong, I *really* want them to succeed, but so far, it's 100% vapor.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Can it be recalinbrated (by tapping my hands on a panel a few times) to emit a tachyon pulse? Because it it can't, I ain't interested.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
If this ultracapacitor can discharge its energy at a rate of 1.21 jigawatts, it's no wonder Lockheed's interested.
Not helpful in dispelling claims of vaporware. It does sound amazing though. Interestingly, it seems they intend to keep the tech strictly in-house, rather than licensing it. Makes me think of a future where EEstor cells are in everything. Good for standardization I suppose.
"Be light, stinging, insolent and melancholy"
Lockheed Martin to Use EEstors Ultracapacitors for Military and Homeland Security Applications January 13th, 2008
The military needs the energy density that this EEstor thing provides for weapon systems.
EEstor: More Clues Emerge
For years, I wanted to believe that Peak Oil could bring this horror show down. My problem, of course, was that I couldn't ignore simple, observable realities and the fact that evil people have many plans up their sleeves.
Some of you view collapse due to Peak Oil as a given. I understand that desire. Unfortunately, it's just not going to go that way This system is going to limp on, creaking and grinding and murdering and polluting all the way into the grim dystopia of clean, green fascism.
Shell's $30 per Barrel Oil Shale Process
The technology to build the techno green utopia has been around for easily thirty years. Sorry folks, that's not how it went, and that's not how it's going to go. The primacy of new killing technologies and technologies of political control go hand in hand with the clean energy systems.
Forget the Green Technology - The Hot Money Is in Guns
What kind of political and economic system are the limousine liberals and the four star generals creating here? (Rhetorical question.)
Kleiner Perkins: Al Gore and Colin Powell, Together at Last to Save the Planet
To top it off, this Lockheed Martin press release includes one of the most terrifying phrases Ive ever encountered: Energy independence for the Warfighter.
Think about that phrase for a few minutes, if you dare.
Via: Press Media Wire:
Lockheed Martin has signed an exclusive international rights agreement to integrate and market Electrical Energy Storage Units (EESU) from EEStor, Inc., for military and homeland security applications. Specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
EEStor, based in Cedar Park, TX, is developing a ceramic battery chemistry that could provide 10 times the energy density of lead acid batteries at 1/10th the weight and volume. As envisioned, EESUs will be a fully "green" technology that will be half the price per stored watt-hour than traditional battery technologies.
"Lockheed Martin has a wide range of innovative energy solutions for federal, state and regional energy applications," said Glenn Miller, vice president of Technical Operations and Applied Research at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. "The EEStor energy storage technology provides potential solutions for the demanding requirements for energy in military and homeland defense applications."
EESUs are planned as nontoxic, non-hazardous and non-explosive. Since the EESU design is based on ultra-capacitor architecture, it will allow for flexible packaging and rapid charge/discharge capabilities. EESUs will be ideally suited for a wide range of power management initiatives that could lead to energy independence for the Warfighter.
"Lockheed Martin continues to focus on providing our Warfighters with new and innovative technologies that will make their jobs easier," said Lionel Liebman, manager of Program Development - Applied Research at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. "Our ruggedized BattPack(TM) energy storage unit generated considerable interest at the Association of the United States Army Annual Meeting in October 2007 for its potential for fuel savings in vehicular silent watch applications. The potential of an even safer, smaller and more powerful EESU in BattPack(TM) would significantly enhance the Warfighter's capabilities."
EESU qualification testing and mass production at EEStor's facility in Cedar Park is planned for late 2008.
EEStor, Inc., of Ced
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Lockheed picking this up will help develop the technology more quickly, something that I'm all for. If they can find a way to use this technology usefully and practically (which I think they can), it will change the way that we use electricity on all sorts of levels.
If knowing is half the battle, what is the other half?
Not to be confused with an 'ultracrapacitor' which is apparently something that exists within the guy in the cubicle next to mine... And let me tell you this: it is *real* vapor ware.
I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
Here's what they'll be used for: http://www.military.com/soldiertech/0,14632,Soldiertech_RailGuns,,00.html
measure the purity of the powders that they use
Meaning they let the executives snort the primo cocaine off the hooker's pelvis.
Monstar L
Don't mention Jimmy Cagney. That was just Hollywood.
Infuriate left and right
Isn't there a way to set up Slashdot so that I can not have to see any comments labelled "Funny"? Because they're about as funny as a kick in the teeth, and serve only to mark out the less-educated "members" (and I do mean "members"). Pearls before grunting swine - really. Mod me down as much as you like; it's true. Grunting, baaa-ing, bleating ignoramuses who can only react to interesting stories by posting silly quips. It's like fucking Pink Floyd "Animals" in here. Baaaaaa!
Admins: Please do consider implementing a killfile system based on how articles are labelled. I'm absolutely sure many of the less-stupid readers would very much appreciate not having to sift through the 90% of comments that are posted by the ill-educated unwashed and labelled by their peers "Funny".
Wouldn't it be ironic if some of those cretins labelled this comment "Funny"?!
"Absorbing your worst..."
It has all the telltales of fraud or of people havinfg unjustified high hopes for their product because of a self-delusion. Of course there is a small chance of this working. Break-througfhs have been made before. But they should not be believed until they produce a working prototype and it has been evaluated thoroughly by an impattiel third party. In the past, this type of claims were either never deliverd on, or it turned out that the devices could not be made to last long. Making an energy-storage device last long is not an engineering task, that can be planned or that is typically successful.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
I'm waiting for this invention to reach the public. This could very well be the answer to the environmental issues related to automotive propulsion and the short mileage of electrically propulsed vehicles. Unfortunately this will disappear somewhere within Lockheed Martin and/or some defense department somewhere, or it will get so covered in patents that no one can actually use it, or it will be lobbied to death.
100% PURE SNOW!
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
I didn't think this up, but a physicist who had previously worked on barium titanate capacitors for many years pointed out what he thinks is EEstor's fundamental error.
It is true that ferroelectrics (i.e. barium titanate) can give high dielectric constants, and high quality materials processing may be able to improve the dielectric constant non-trivially.
The fundamental error is computing energy storage.
To be blunt, it appears they did this:
1. put in geometry, and dielectric constant K, compute apparent capacitance C, compute predicted energy storage = 1/2 C V^2. Wow! 1.21 jigawatts!
2. Call up the VC's!
3. Go into stealth mode
4. Profit!
The problem is that energy storage doesn't work like this for high voltages, there is well-known dielectric saturation.
Energy storage in that regime with barium titanate is linear with voltage, not quadratic.
Notice how all of EEstor's claims on milestones are about dielectric constant (measured at zero volts of course) or purity of this thing or some production process step.
None of that matters for what people really care about: net energy density at actual working maximum voltage.
That needs to be measured.
3. Find out energy storage is two orders of magnitude lower than we promised.
4. Don't profit.
To summarize the interview with the Lockheed manager: he basically said "We haven't tested any of their prototypes, but we totally take their word for it when they say their product has 10x the energy density of lead-acid batteries. Oh, and at a fraction of the cost, too!"
I sure hope he doesn't end up eating his words.
That that is is that that that that is not is not.