No, which is why I don't suspect it. I don't suspect things that aren't documented. Government financing is public record and routinely released. If this project is connected to the government, the info can be found.
The Redwood loan made headlines.
I don't suspect government financing because I haven't seen it reported.
I think the company is past the development stage, but whatever happens will be a learning experience.
Massive funding is no guarantee of success.
As nearly as I can tell the project only received some grants from the federal government, but that is still some funding.
Better batteries will open up lots of possibilities, but the hill to overcome the energy storage density of hydrocarbon
fuels is massive. There is also the issue that all the advances in battery electric cars also apply to hybrid electric cars
that carry their energy as hydrocarbon fuel.
Think about it like this, A tesla model 3 gets about 5 miles per kWh, but the battery to push the car 363 miles weighs
over 1000 lbs, and the batteries weight does not decrease as the charge decreases.
A Toyota Camry hybrid has a 13.2 gallon tank that pushes the car 673 miles on 80 lbs of fuel,
and the weight of the fuel decreases as the fuel is used.
Assuming they both require the same energy to push down the road, the Camry is extracting 134 kWh
from 80 lbs of fuel.
This combined with the knowledge that we can make all the sustainable carbon neutral gasoline we want,
makes gasoline a much better "battery" for this application.
It is no small wonder that the big oil companies are buying up ownership in solar and wind farms.
