Just testing out a new service that let’s me do blog polls (hat tip to my pal Mark Evans). I’ll try to change the question every week and post the results from the prior week (unless of course nobody votes and the numbers are pathetically low).

Could be fun.

I listened in on an earnings conference call this morning for building supplies giant Elk Corp., which for two years now has had a partnership with ATS Automation’s Spheral Solar. The two are planning commercial release of solar-integrated roofing and building material products.

Elk Roofing chairman and CEO Tom Karol, responding to questions from MacMurray Whale from Sprott Securities, said the Spheral Solar roofing product is still in alpha testing but the company hopes to move into beta testing — i.e. put it on real rooftops in the marketplace — in about 60 days. After the results of the beta are analysed, and assuming all goes well, the product will be fully commercialized in the first quarter of 2007.

“It’s something we’re very excited about, but we’re also very cautious,” said Karol, adding that Elk is committed to Spheral Solar’s technology but is keeping abreast of other technologies in the market.

Karol emphasized how dedicated Elk is to solar-integrated building products. “We would love to be out and into the market with our product today,” he said. “It is a hot market, and will be for the next 20 years at least, and we want to make sure we can carve out a niche in that business. We’re not where we’d like to be, but we’re chomping at the bit to get our product to market.”

Asked whether there has been any setbacks, he said the two companies have fallen about two months behind schedule — not a huge delay. But when Elk does eventually place its first commercial order with Spheral, Karol indicated it would be a big one.

“We believe we can essentially sell all into the marketplace that they can make,” he said, pointing out that integrating solar into building materials offers better value for customers.

I’m not surprised that Karol is getting impatient, given the types of federal subsidies being offered in the United States for installing solar PV systems, and perhaps more important, the passing of California’s ambitious solar initiative

What this means for observers of ATS’s Solar Group — which could soon be spun off from its parent — is that all product that comes out of Spheral Solar’s facility is essentially already spoken for. That is, the product is sold before it’s even been produced.

Now that’s the kind of certainty that investors like.

(Note: Spheral Solar, of course, isn’t the only company going after the building-integrated PV roofing market. Solar Integrated Technologies Inc., for example, has already completed 39 industrial solar roofing projects in 2005. Clearly, the market is poised to heat up.)

I listened in on an earnings conference call this morning for building supplies giant Elk Corp., which for two years now has had a partnership with ATS Automation’s Spheral Solar. The two are planning commercial release of solar-integrated roofing and building material products.

Elk Roofing chairman and CEO Tom Karol, responding to questions from MacMurray Whale from Sprott Securities, said the Spheral Solar roofing product is still in alpha testing but the company hopes to move into beta testing — i.e. put it on real rooftops in the marketplace — in about 60 days. After the results of the beta are analysed, and assuming all goes well, the product will be fully commercialized in the first quarter of 2007.

“It’s something we’re very excited about, but we’re also very cautious,” said Karol, adding that Elk is committed to Spheral Solar’s technology but is keeping abreast of other technologies in the market.

Karol emphasized how dedicated Elk is to solar-integrated building products. “We would love to be out and into the market with our product today,” he said. “It is a hot market, and will be for the next 20 years at least, and we want to make sure we can carve out a niche in that business. We’re not where we’d like to be, but we’re chomping at the bit to get our product to market.”

Asked whether there has been any setbacks, he said the two companies have fallen about two months behind schedule — not a huge delay. But when Elk does eventually place its first commercial order with Spheral, Karol indicated it would be a big one.

“We believe we can essentially sell all into the marketplace that they can make,” he said, pointing out that integrating solar into building materials offers better value for customers.

I’m not surprised that Karol is getting impatient, given the types of federal subsidies being offered in the United States for installing solar PV systems, and perhaps more important, the passing of California’s ambitious solar initiative

What this means for observers of ATS’s Solar Group — which could soon be spun off from its parent — is that all product that comes out of Spheral Solar’s facility is essentially already spoken for. That is, the product is sold before it’s even been produced.

Now that’s the kind of certainty that investors like.

(Note: Spheral Solar, of course, isn’t the only company going after the building-integrated PV roofing market. Solar Integrated Technologies Inc., for example, has already completed 39 industrial solar roofing projects in 2005. Clearly, the market is poised to heat up.)

Back in September it was revealed through a BusinessWeek Online story that Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers had invested $3 million (U.S.) in a Texas battery-technology startup called EEStor Inc.

According to the BusinessWeek article, the company was founded in 2001 by former senior managers at Xerox PARC and IBM. Little information is known about EEStor, which prefers to operate in stealth. In fact, to this day it still doesn’t have a corporate Web site.

However, BusinessWeek did learn that EEStor has developed a “parallel plate capacitor with barium titanate as the dielectric,” and that it claims to make a battery at “half the cost per kilowatt-hour and one-tenth the weight of lead-acid batteries.” It also learned that EEStor planned to build its own assembly line to prove the technology works, and following that, would license the technology to manufacturers for volume production.

Last week BusinessWeek reported an interesting comment from Kleiner’s John Doerr, who recently spoke at a California event where tech VCs gather to make their predictions for the year. Doerr reportedly referred to an investment in an energy storage company he declined to name, calling it Kleiner’s “Highest-risk, highest-reward” investment.

This is a big deal given Kleiner’s history. Keep in mind that this is the venture capital company that struck it rich with early investments in Google, Amazon.com, Netscape and AOL — all household names of the online world. The company is now going after similar success in the energy market.

Given all this, I’m super curious about this EEStor company and what it’s working on. And here’s what I’ve manage to dig up myself, beyond the useful tidbits from BusinessWeek:

* A simple Google search reveals that EEStor has a relationship with a Canadian maker of low-speed electric vehicles called Feel Good Cars, which I’ve written about on this blog several times. According to a press release from Feel Good Cars released on Nov. 15:

“On September, 30, 2005, FGC entered into a Technology Agreement with EEStor Inc. located in Austin, Texas, to acquire the exclusive worldwide right to purchase high-power-density ceramic ultra capacitors called Electrical Storage Units (ESU) that are under development by that company. An ESU can store over 10 times the energy of lead-acid batteries and are expected to be available for use in the ZENN and regular electrically powered small cars. FGC’s exclusive worldwide right is for all personal transportation uses under 15 KW drive systems (equivalent to 100 peak horse power) and for vehicles with a curb weight of under 1200 kilograms not including batteries.”

On top of this release, a reliable source familar with EEStor had this to say about the company’s technology:

* The batteries fully charge in minutes as opposed to hours.

* Whereas with lead acid batteries you might get lucky to have 500 to 700 recharge cycles, the EEStor technology has been tested up to a million cycles with no material degradation.

* EEStor’s technology could be used in more than low-speed electric vehicles. The company envisions using it for full-speed pure electric vehicles, hybrid-electrics (including plug-ins), military applications, backup power and even large-scale utility storage for intermittent renewable power sources such as wind and solar.

* Because it’s a solid state battery rather than a chemical battery, such being the case for lithium ion technology, there would be no overheating and thus safety concerns with using it in a vehicle.

* Finally, with volume manufacturing it’s expected to be cost-competitive with lead-acid technology.

“It’s the holy grail of battery technology,” said my source. “It means you could do a highway capable electric city car that would recharge in three or four minutes and drive you from Toronto to Montreal. Consumers wouldn’t notice the difference from driving an electric car versus a gas-powered car.”

These, of course, are bold claims. But given Kleiner’s involvement in this Texas company, you can bet the promise is there. Without a doubt, this will be a company to watch, and if the above claims prove true, this could have a profound impact on transportation and large-scale renewable energy production/management.

EEStor could, indeed, become the Google of the cleantech world that VCs have been looking for.

Back in September it was revealed through a BusinessWeek Online story that Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers had invested $3 million (U.S.) in a Texas battery-technology startup called EEStor Inc.

According to the BusinessWeek article, the company was founded in 2001 by former senior managers at Xerox PARC and IBM. Little information is known about EEStor, which prefers to operate in stealth. In fact, to this day it still doesn’t have a corporate Web site.

However, BusinessWeek did learn that EEStor has developed a “parallel plate capacitor with barium titanate as the dielectric,” and that it claims to make a battery at “half the cost per kilowatt-hour and one-tenth the weight of lead-acid batteries.” It also learned that EEStor planned to build its own assembly line to prove the technology works, and following that, would license the technology to manufacturers for volume production.

Last week BusinessWeek reported an interesting comment from Kleiner’s John Doerr, who recently spoke at a California event where tech VCs gather to make their predictions for the year. Doerr reportedly referred to an investment in an energy storage company he declined to name, calling it Kleiner’s “Highest-risk, highest-reward” investment.

This is a big deal given Kleiner’s history. Keep in mind that this is the venture capital company that struck it rich with early investments in Google, Amazon.com, Netscape and AOL — all household names of the online world. The company is now going after similar success in the energy market.

Given all this, I’m super curious about this EEStor company and what it’s working on. And here’s what I’ve manage to dig up myself, beyond the useful tidbits from BusinessWeek:

* A simple Google search reveals that EEStor has a relationship with a Canadian maker of low-speed electric vehicles called Feel Good Cars, which I’ve written about on this blog several times. According to a press release from Feel Good Cars released on Nov. 15:

“On September, 30, 2005, FGC entered into a Technology Agreement with EEStor Inc. located in Austin, Texas, to acquire the exclusive worldwide right to purchase high-power-density ceramic ultra capacitors called Electrical Storage Units (ESU) that are under development by that company. An ESU can store over 10 times the energy of lead-acid batteries and are expected to be available for use in the ZENN and regular electrically powered small cars. FGC’s exclusive worldwide right is for all personal transportation uses under 15 KW drive systems (equivalent to 100 peak horse power) and for vehicles with a curb weight of under 1200 kilograms not including batteries.”

On top of this release, a reliable source familar with EEStor had this to say about the company’s technology:

* The batteries fully charge in minutes as opposed to hours.

* Whereas with lead acid batteries you might get lucky to have 500 to 700 recharge cycles, the EEStor technology has been tested up to a million cycles with no material degradation.

* EEStor’s technology could be used in more than low-speed electric vehicles. The company envisions using it for full-speed pure electric vehicles, hybrid-electrics (including plug-ins), military applications, backup power and even large-scale utility storage for intermittent renewable power sources such as wind and solar.

* Because it’s a solid state battery rather than a chemical battery, such being the case for lithium ion technology, there would be no overheating and thus safety concerns with using it in a vehicle.

* Finally, with volume manufacturing it’s expected to be cost-competitive with lead-acid technology.

“It’s the holy grail of battery technology,” said my source. “It means you could do a highway capable electric city car that would recharge in three or four minutes and drive you from Toronto to Montreal. Consumers wouldn’t notice the difference from driving an electric car versus a gas-powered car.”

These, of course, are bold claims. But given Kleiner’s involvement in this Texas company, you can bet the promise is there. Without a doubt, this will be a company to watch, and if the above claims prove true, this could have a profound impact on transportation and large-scale renewable energy production/management.

EEStor could, indeed, become the Google of the cleantech world that VCs have been looking for.