Monday, August 3, 2009

Why would DARPA fund EEStor? Businessweek Article Provides Insights


Steve LeVine has written about some of new cleantech priorities of DARPA in this July 23, 2009 article as well as points about past achievements. A few months back, I tried unsuccessfully to speak with Robert J. Nowak, who is mentioned in this article. He has been involved with multiple energy storage initiatives for the DoD and someone who served on a National Academies committee with him recommended I seek him out. Alas, LeVine had better luck. Steve, if you read this blog post, shoot my email address over to Mr. Nowak: eestorblog@gmail.com

From the article:

"Typically, DARPA requires contractors to come up with solutions that are orders of magnitude superior to current technology. It pays companies—from startups to IBM—as well as top universities to meet a goal. Then, other than imposing strict reporting requirements, the agency gets out of the way of the researchers' work."