EEStor Leaks  

TreeHugger has a post in last week's bout of publicity for EEstor - Super Secretive Supercapacitor CEO Tells All in Leaked Phone Call.

In what appears to be a huge leak, the notoriously secretive Dick Weir of Eestor did a phone call with someone that got out, copied, transcribed and put up on TheEEStory.com.

We have been losing hope that the eeStor ultracap would ever arrive, but it appears that a car that charges in minutes and runs for hours, a wind turbine that stores its own energy, notebook computers and cellphones that charge in seconds and run for days could be months, not years, away.

Tyler Hamilton of Clean Break, who has spoken to Weir a few times, confirms that it is his voice. He also does a great summary of the conversation.

This is deep stuff, and probably very embarrassing for the secretive Weir. There are even allusions to its military uses, who knows, supercapacitor-powered weapons. All our years of coverage of eeStor tells us that this release is just a huge mistake. The aud.io of the interview is being sucked off the net everywhere, but the transcription is still out there.

W: So I said let's do something better than that. Let's get in bed with Lockheed Martin and when I went and gave presentation? to CIA and they suggested that. And so I did. And that 's worked out exceptionally well. We now have a contract with them where they handle all of our contracts with ... government contracts ... with Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security. And writes? rides? rights? other worldwide contracts. So now I don't have to be a military contractor. I went and got the world's best.

I: Umhh

W: And they can be between me and the Federal Government to handle all this stuff. Then they write a commercial contract with me to supply parts to Lockheed and or for military contracts for other groups. So that they can build these mission critical systems.

I: OK. Since you're no longer a VC ... Does that mean you guys are seeing revenue come in from Lockheed, at this point? ... Significant?

W: We had a con ... government contract and we received money off from it, but not revenue. But just, uhh ... they wanted to do some technical studies. We did that for 'em. And they paid us some good money for it.

I: All right.

W: It was a DARPA contract.

I: K

W: Which will lead to a bigger contract.

Notwithstanding the embarrassment, I am thrilled to hear that this thing works, that it is already at the Underwriters Laboratory approval stage, and that Zenn cars may be rolling off the line soon. A few of the key claims as summarized by Tyler at Clean Break:

* On storage for PCs and handhelds. “We can take a battery for a cellphone and give you three to five times more energy storage that would never degrade on you and you can charge in seconds.”
* Electric vehicles: “It’s going to take time to emerge, but I think with ZENN Motors it’s going to be very interesting to see them grow dramatically to capture that market.”

* On portable tools: “I’m already in knee-deep with the people in the portable tool business. They’re waiting for me to emerge and they’ll come on strong.”

Read the whole transcript at The Eestory