Besides rolling out all sorts of cool 3D HDTVs and ultra-portable Vaio computers, Sony is quite busy manufacturing advanced, high-tech gizmos in some other areas, such as power storage (a.k.a. batteries). And, in fact, that's exactly what we'll talk about as follows, although the subject at hand is hardly related to your average batteries, but rather to some high-end storage solutions targeting mostly server usage.

So, Sony has recently announced the development of an energy storage module using lithium-ion rechargeable batteries made with olivine-type lithium iron phosphate as the cathode material. Key features of olivine-type lithium iron phosphate cell include high power output, long-life performance and excellent thermal stability.

The newly developed module has a 1.2kWh-class capacity, which supports a nominal voltage of 51.2V and touts a maximum output of around 2.5kW. The device sports a built-in self-monitoring function for detecting any abnormalities within the energy storage module; unfortunately, it will most likely take quite a lot of space wherever it's installed, given the fact that it measures 431 x 420 x 79mm (not including fixtures) and weighs somewhere in the vicinity of 17kg.

Sample shipments of the new module are scheduled to begin in June, 2010, and the range of uses is quite varied, starting from various stationary power supplies such as UPS (uninterruptible power supply) for data servers and going as far as backup power supplies for mobile phone wireless base stations. Sadly, the topic of pricing was not touched by Sony, at least not for the time being.


We are just a few, but there are many of you, Softpedia users, out there. That's why we thought it would be a good idea to create an email address for you to help us a little in finding gadgets we missed. Interesting links are bound to be posted with recognition going mainly to those who submit. The address is .  

Follow me on Twitter @AlexVochin.