Altair Nanotechnologies (ALTI) is up nearly 15% in after hours of trading after it was announced the company is receiving $3.8 million from the Office of Naval Research for the ongoing research and design of Altair’s large scale lithium battery storage systems for the potential use on Navy ships as un uninterruptible power supply.  The battery would allow the Navy to run only one gas turbine generator efficiently as opposed to two and provide enough backup power to allow a 2nd generator to be started and put online should the primary generator go down.  It’s estimated this system would save the Navy $1 million per vessel for a 6 month cruise.

“The design and development of a 500-kW energy-storage unit paves the way for the Navy to dramatically change how vessels respond to requirements for efficient, redundant, and safe power availability. Given the number of ships to which Altairnano’s technology could be applied, this electrical storage and rapid power delivery system could reduce the Navy’s fuel consumption by tens of millions of gallons each year, said CEO Terry Copeland.

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