Sam Spade's San Francisco

Altair Nanotechnologies, which specializes in lithium ion batteries, said Monday that it will work with investor AES to develop home energy storage systems that can hold more than 500 kilowatts of energy. AES, a power company, invested $3 million in Altairnano earlier this year.

In the photo: A close-up of lithium titanate spinels. These particles coat the anode.

Home storage is one of the holy grails of the clean technology field. With a big battery in the closet, the energy harvested from solar panels on the roof could be used by a homeowner at night. Home storage also gives utility owners breathing room. Get enough batteries out there and the risk of a brownout goes down.

It can even help utilities put off erecting additional power plants. PG&E says that plug-in hybrids could serve as home energy storage units.

Start-up GridPoint has emerged as an early leader in the field, but it's still relatively small. More companies will jump in.

Altairnano is trying to play in lots of markets. It also makes lithium ion batteries for plug-in hybrids and claims its batteries can recharge rapidly, a big sticking point for electric cars. Altairnano also says the batteries are safer than traditional lithium ion batteries.

So far, however, Altairnano is not producing massive numbers of batteries. At clean tech conferences, the name comes up a lot. But the question everyone asks is, if the technology is so good, how come the company isn't bigger?

The answer is that the company is going to become a lot bigger very soon. When their project is developed, almost certainly some big fish will come along and gobble up Altairnano. Getting in on this ground-floor opportunity may be a smart move.

Thanks to Michael Kanellos of Cnet's News Blog for originally breaking the story

Altairnano is based in Reno, Nevada, with a 100,000 square foot facility of offices, laboratories and manufacturing areas. They also have battery design, prototype manufacturing and product applications labs in Anderson, Indiana.

Other Altairnano products in development include:

* Pigment Process
* Battery Materials
* Thermal Spray
* Photo-catalytic Activity
* Catalysts and Catalyst Support
* Photovoltaics
* Algae Mitigation in Recreational Water
* Air Purification in HVAC Systems
* Pharmaceutical Drug Candidates
* Drug Delivery
* Dental Materials
* Orthopedic Implant Coatings

Altairnano Resources:
Altairnano's company profile (,pdf)
Altairnano at a glance (.pdf)
Altairnano's company presentation visual aids and charts

GridPoint Resources:
CNN Money's analysis of Grid Point
Command Information's analysis of GridPoint

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