TYNGSBORO, Mass., July 6, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Beacon Power Corporation (Nasdaq:BCON), a leading provider of advanced energy storage products and services to support a more stable, reliable and efficient electricity grid, has delivered and put in place the initial flywheel power electronics and associated support equipment as part of the construction of the world's first grid-scale flywheel energy storage plant in Stephentown, New York.
The systems, consisting of power electronics, cooling and other support equipment housed in specially equipped containers, were lowered onto permanent foundations. After the containerized systems are wired in place, they will be interconnected with Beacon flywheels. Support equipment for a total of 4 MW of energy storage capacity was delivered to the site over several days last week.
Eighty flywheel foundations have already been installed at the site, and the Company expects to deliver and begin installing 40 flywheels (4 MW) during the third quarter of this year. The 4 MW are planned to be connected and earning revenue from frequency regulation services by the end of the fourth quarter. The balance of the 20 MW plant is expected to be completed and operational by the end of the first quarter of 2011.
"This is a milestone – not just for Beacon Power and our investors, but for everyone who has supported the development and commercialization of smart grid technology," said Bill Capp, president and CEO of Beacon Power. "While the scale of this project is impressive, we've been pleased that construction has remained on schedule and on budget. As expected, the experience we've gained from installing and operating three megawatts of flywheel energy storage in Massachusetts has translated well into this full-scale 20 MW project."
Photos of ongoing construction progress on the 20 MW flywheel plant in Stephentown, and the recent delivery of power electronics and support systems, may be seen at http://www.beaconpower.com/company/20100706-gallery.asp.
About Beacon Power Corporation
Beacon Power Corporation designs, develops and is commercializing advanced products and services to support stable, reliable and efficient electricity grid operation. Beacon's Smart Energy Matrix™, now in production, being operated and earning revenue, is a non-polluting, megawatt-scale, utility-grade, flywheel-based solution designed to provide less expensive, more sustainable and effective frequency regulation services to the nation's power grid. The Company's business strategy is both to supply frequency regulation services from its own plants and to sell systems directly to utilities or grid operators in parts of North America and selected international markets. Beacon is a publicly traded company with its research, development and manufacturing facility in the U.S. For more information, visit www.beaconpower.com.
Safe Harbor Statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: The Material contained in this press release may include statements that are not historical facts and are considered "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements reflect Beacon Power Corporation's current views about future events, financial performances, and project development. These "forward-looking" statements are identified by the use of terms and phrases such as "will," "believe," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," and similar expressions identifying forward-looking statements. Investors should not rely on forward-looking statements because they are subject to a variety of risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from Beacon's expectation. These factors include: a short operating history; a history of losses and anticipated continued losses from operations; the complexity and other challenges of arranging project financing and resources for one or more frequency regulation power plants, including uncertainty about whether we will be successful in finalizing the DOE loan guarantee support for our Stephentown, New York, facility, or complying with the conditions or ongoing covenants of that support; our need to comply with any disbursement or other conditions under the DOE grant program; a need to raise additional equity to fund Beacon's projects and its other operations in uncertain financial markets; conditions in target markets, including the fact that it has taken longer than anticipated for some ISOs to comply with FERC's requirement to update market rules to include new technology such as the Company's; our ability to obtain site interconnection approvals, landlord approvals, or other zoning and construction approvals in a timely manner; limited experience manufacturing commercial products or supplying frequency regulation services on a commercial basis; limited commercial contracts for revenues to date; the dependence of revenues on the achievement of product optimization, manufacturing and commercialization milestones; dependence on third-party suppliers; intense competition from companies with greater financial resources, especially from companies that are already in the frequency regulation market; possible government regulation that would impede the ability to market products or services or affect market size; possible product liability claims and the negative publicity which could result; any failure to protect intellectual property; retaining key executives and the possible need in the future to hire and retain key executives; the historical volatility of our stock price, as well as the volatility of the stock price of other companies in the energy sector, especially in view of the current situation in the financial markets generally. These factors are elaborated upon and other factors may be disclosed from time to time in Beacon Power filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Beacon Power expressly does not undertake any duty to update forward-looking statements.