Holy wow batman, Altair Nanotechnologies new batts.

[omgwtfbyobbq]

From GCC.

In October, the company announced that, in ongoing testing, it has completed 15,000 deep charge/discharge cycles of its NanoSafe battery cells. The cells still retained over 85% of their original charge capacity after the 15,000 cycles.

This represents a significant improvement over conventional, commercially available rechargeable battery technologies that typically retain that level of charge capacity only through approximately 1,000 deep charge/discharge cycles.

Altairnano said that it tested the battery cells at 10C (6 minute) charge and discharge rates. They were deep charged and discharged—i.e. they were taken to 100% charge and 0% charge respectively during the 6-minute cycles. Although tests involved full charges and discharges, partial charging and discharging of the battery does not appear to impact the life or the holding charge capacity of the batteries—i.e. they exhibit no memory loss.

In theory, a 15,000 charge cycle life could translate into a battery that would last greater than 40 years if it was charged daily, as would be the case in an electric vehicle or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle environment. However, in practice, other wear and tear factors would realistically limit the actual life of the batteries to probably 20 years, according to the company.

As long as the cost doesn't approach $7-8k/kwh, we've got a winner!