Battery demonstration done

A Reno-based technology company said Tuesday that it completed a successful demonstration of a giant battery system purchased for a utility subsidiary of AES Corp.

Altair Nanotechnologies, which has shares traded on Nasdaq National Market (ticker: ALTI), said the battery was provided for a substation owned by Indiana Power & Light, an AES company.

The system contains two one-megawatt battery storage units capable of providing 500 kilowatt hours of electricity before being recharged.

The lithium-titanite battery systems could be used as backup power for large power users with network computers, data centers, hospitals and telephone towers, spokesman Ed Rothschild said.

Also, the batteries could provide electricity for solar or wind power plants when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining, he said.