Power Technology Awarded Patent No. 6,060,198 For New Electrochemical Battery Structure.

Business Editors

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 15, 2000

Power Technology Inc. (OTCBB:PWTC.OB) announced today that it has been awarded Patent No. 6,060,198 for a new electrochemical battery structure, an important milestone toward the Company's goal of developing a superior battery that has higher power, lower weight, and lower production costs, and is environmentally friendly.

A battery's capacity to deliver electric current is proportional to the surface area of the plates contacted by electrolyte. Power Technology's new, patented battery structure consists of rigid, reticulated foam plates in place of standard lead plates or grids. The foam structure dramatically increases the surface area exposed to the electrolyte.

Preliminary results show that the new battery structure reduces battery weight, increases capacity, and uses less lead compared to standard lead-acid batteries.

Efforts are underway at Power Technology to develop an optimized lead-acid battery design, incorporating the new reticulated foam plates, that can be commercially produced and marketed by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The Company has initiated discussions with several battery manufacturers regarding licensing of the new technology.

The new battery structure can have all the same form factors and voltage levels as existing automotive and industrial batteries used for starting, lighting and ignition (SLI) and deep cycle applications (e.g., golf carts and electric vehicles).

The patented battery structure is applicable to most battery chemistries, including nickel-cadmium, nickel-metal hydride, silver-oxide zinc, and nickel iron.

Alvin Snaper, the inventor of the patented technology, and his team of industrial engineers at Power Technology, have been experimenting with an upgraded version of Thomas Edison's proven battery technology, which was used extensively for several decades in trains and other industrial applications at the beginning of the century. Edison's battery used nickel-iron plates and an alkaline electrolyte. "Preliminary tests with the new battery designs have shown a great promise and development of a new chemistry is advancing rapidly," noted Mr. Snaper, who is Power Technology's vice president of development and a member of the Board of Directors.

Lee Balak, President of Power Technology, stated, "The combination of benefits from the new, patented battery structure and the new battery chemistry under development, will give us a superior battery with higher power, less weight, and reduced production costs. It should also be an environmentally safe battery made from non-toxic materials. If widely adopted, this new battery type has the potential to vastly reduce the amount of lead entering our environment, reduce acid waste in landfills, make electric vehicles a practical alternative for automobile drivers, and hence significantly lower auto emissions in our cities."

The development of a modern version of "Edison's battery" by the Company has recently been accelerated with the retention of B.C. Research, Inc. (www.bcr.bc.ca), which will create working battery models for various applications using Power Technology's new patented structural designs and electrochemical advances.

"The assistance of B.C. Research, together with the backing from our institutional investor Swartz LLC (www.swartzllc.com), will enable Power Technology to quickly develop new battery chemistries and put our other patents on the fast track for commercial release via third party licensing and production," noted Mr. Balak. The Company`s other patents include a cold welding technology for large pipelines and a self-powered moisture sensor.

Power Technology, Inc. is a Las Vegas-based technology development company, which holds several patents in the power generation and power storage fields, and is working to provide innovative and practical technology solutions for commercial, government, and industrial applications worldwide.

Certain statements in this news release may constitute "forward looking" statements within the meaning of section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties, and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievement expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements to differ.