Dec
18
Impossible Blacklight Gets the First Customer
December 18, 2008 | 7 Comments
All across the Internet this past Thursday and Friday was the announcement that Blacklight of the soon to be very famous Dr. Randell L. Mills signed its first paying customer. Based in a press release, the news sounds great to start. But the details such as payments, installation dates and other sundry items are well, absent. Which might be normal for this event.
At first glance the news is great even if the terms are silent. Its likely that the terms are quite fluid, as a first customer could be (should be) getting the sweetheart deal. It behooves Blacklight to get the not described project up and running with as much flexibility as possible. Deal No. One is after all, the steepest learning curve of all.
So I called the customer and spoke with the manager. There is a non-disclosure agreement in force and the fine gentleman did an exemplary job of making clear there is a deal but no further information is forthcoming. I’m using just “manager” as this little company has no spokesman, PR person or explicitly trained person to take calls. Calling will get you an “I can’t talk about that” from everyone except the manager and I think he’s been troubled enough as I was not the first to call. If you have to talk to them, hunt them up yourself, as I wouldn’t want to help add to the burden there. It’s a conundrum for many posts – but Blacklight and hydrino theory may become way to important to overlook.
For many Blacklight Power is an impossible solution. In the face of Rowan University’s study of the technology yielding net energy and a decade or more of intense effort to get the physics premise working, the existence of a functioning machine is both a marvel and cause for dread as it upsets a lot of ordained physics. But the admiration for Dr. Mills goes further than a physics innovator, because his chosen path has been to bring machinery to the commercial market instead of debating the theories.
Just who is this customer? A part of a rural electric cooperative, Estacado Energy Services is a subsidiary of New Mexico’s Roosevelt County Electric Cooperative. A quick look at the web site shows no mention of Estacado Energy Services. Not that it means anything, but one would expect that the Coop would have a page set up already or coming soon. The manager concurred that a page about the agreement and the subsidiary with perhaps updates might be a useful idea.
The motivation to do a deal with Blacklight is also a bit mysterious, the retail rates for residential services is only just over $0.07 with other rates a little higher but closing in on $0.10 kw/hr. One might note that there is a notation that rates can be adjusted at fuel prices increase, which is a likely motivator.
But a certain motivator is the Coop is buying all of its power – from Xcel Energy and the Western Area Power Administration. That makes having some base load and peak generating capacity very interesting to the Coop. With Blacklight offering installation comparisons as shown below the interest has to be very high.
Blacklight Cost Comparison Table Click to Enlarge
For those of us here the real questions are just who is installing what equipment where, when will the rest of the world see results, how is the deal structured and the installation integrated into the local grid, and more details on why such a customer would go first.
I can well imagine why Blacklight would choose to sign in rural New Mexico and do its first set up there. Its dry, remote, and has a large base in irrigation and oil pumping demand for the energy, which might mean they have a large base load. But most of all I suspect that the distances for transmission from the current suppliers has a role. Power lines are getting very expensive, and a 250 MW plant for a utility the size of this Coop would be a great way to add energy without a transmission issue. I have to wonder if the installation will be multiple sites.
There are way more questions than there are answers today. Yet the basis has moved, it was could a customer be found to having one in hand. For the heads up and aware utility manager Blacklight has to be on the closely watched list.
Comments
7 Comments so far
Feedburner
Reddit
Stumbleupon
Who is Estacado Energy Services? It is public information. Look here: http://www.nmprc.state.nm.us/cgi-bin/prcdtl.cgi?2542215+ESTACADO+ENERGY+SERVICES+INC
Thanks Pete!
BW
Alle names to be found on the link Pete
provided (Estacado Energy Services) are either members of the board of
Roosevelt County Electric
Products & Services
or employees of RCEC.
A dry location that needs irrigation for a technology based on water? How is that Ideal?
I still don’t see any real proof that Estacodo Energy Services exists, or if it does, that it does anything beyond dreaming about hobbies that turn into million dollar paychecks.
One would think that a company with the resources to put up a 250MW generating plant would have a website and history that goes back more than 4 years and some sort of description as to what they do other than “Provide energy services”
It seems to me that this New Mexico engergy company could be a testing entity developed between BLP and a commercial energy company as a way to commercialize the power generator while not bringin down damnation on the commercial energy supplier. My guess is that Estacado Energy Services is a fictional company being used as a front for a demonstration. If sucessful, the owners of this company will remove the blinds and declare that it has found a goose that lays a golden egg. Only time will tell.
It’s interesting to see the types of commercial energy testing they are doing and how it helps them exceed their competitors.