Panasonic is going to be rolling out production of Li-ion batteries that use a silicon alloy anode soon, according to Nikkei. The result? A whopping 30% increase in capacity. Panasonic's not the only company working on the technology, but they're the first to yield any kind of spec detail.
The Si-alloy batteries are expected to retain at least 80% capacity even after 500 charge/recharge cycles, and will be available commercially starting in 2012. The first target: notebooks, although the bigger fish appears to be vehicles. Don't get to excited about the impact on electric cars, though: given the additional weight associated with Si-alloys, it'll be some time before we see one of these bad boys in a Volt. [Nikkei via Engadget]


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