International Battery – which specializes in large format lithium-ion batteries – has won a contract from NASA to build a lithium-ion battery that can serve as an uninterruptible power supply on the space station. A prototype of the battery will be tested later this year.

Earlier this month, the company landed $2.1 million in federal funding to develop batteries for silent combat tactical vehicles for the U.S. Army.

Large format batteries are exactly what they sound like. Unlike small AA or AAA cells, large format battery cells can weigh 1.5 or more kilograms. A battery of large format cells thus requires fewer cells and, potentially, can hold more power because there's less overall packaging. International's lithium batteries are based around a lithium-phosphate chemistry, the same chemistry family of the batteries made by A123 Systems. It also has a nickel battery.

Several auto manufacturers and some utilities have indicated that they plan to adopt large format batteries. But you can expect many of the small cell makers to drift toward this market – Imara, for instance, is working on large format cells. The former CEO used to drive around in a Ford pick-up truck rigged to drive on its batteries.

The company's chairman is Mark Mills, who has one of the more interesting stump speeches on the green circuit. He calculated that if you wanted to make a Google data center and power it with ENIAC-era computers, it would consume as much power as all of Manhattan. The world consumes 2,500 barrels of oil a second right now. If you stacked up those physical barrels, the stack would grow at 5,000 miles an hour, he says. More on his numbers at the above link.