EEStor should talk
Thursday, November 1st, 2007Is EEStor’s ultracapacitor-based storage device for real? Will it meet its ambitious — some would say unrealistic — claims? And even if it does, can we realistically expect the product to just instantly change the market? After all, developing a game-changing technology is one thing, but the process of changing the game takes a lot of time and money. Given that we haven’t heard a lot about EEStor, other than the few articles that have appeared over the past two years (including my own), and other than the speculation that continues to be rampant on the Net, I think it’s fair at this point to expect a status report from the company. I know Dick Weir, EEStor’s CEO and co-founder, never wanted the publicity — but the cat has been out of the bag for long enough now. Time to fess up.
Personally, I’ve been hopeful over the past two years that EEStor is indeed for real. But I’m beginning to have my doubts now. I just confirmed that Morton Topfer, former vice-chairman of Dell and director with AMD, left EEStor’s board about five months ago. Not sure why… but it begs the question. Also, a well-placed person within the Kleiner Perkins circle told me recently that he’s not convinced EEStor’s energy storage system will work as claimed.
The problem with silence is that it leaves people like myself speculating. Why do we speculate? I don’t know about you but I can’t help it. I want EEStor to work, and I crave more information. But still we have no Web site. No comments from Kleiners or the CEO. Nothing.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
