flywheels

DOE-backed Beacon Power finds buyer post-bankruptcy

Beacon Power, which had received a government loan and then went bankrupt, has found a buyer, in a deal that will recoup some of the loaned money.

The flywheel energy storage company today said it has reached a deal with private equity firm Rockland Capital to buy most of its assets for $30.5 million. That includes Beacon Power's intellectual property around flywheel grid storage and a New York energy storage project partially financed by a Department of Energy loan guarantee.

If the deal is finalized, the Energy Department stands to recover 70 percent of the loan, according to … Read more

Beacon Power to sell assets for DOE loan

Beacon Power, the energy storage company that received a federal loan and later declared bankruptcy, said it intends to sell off its assets to repay the loan.

The Tyngsboro, Mass.-based company said yesterday it reached an agreement with the Department of Energy where it will sell the Stephentown, N.Y., flywheel storage facility financed by a DOE loan guarantee. The sale of that facility need to be before January 30 next year.

Beacon Power owes $39.1 million on a $43 million loan guarantee it secured to build a 20-megawatt power plant that uses spinning flywheels to supply quick … Read more

Beacon Power: We're broke, but we're no Solyndra

The CEO of Beacon Power, a government-backed energy storage company that has filed for bankruptcy protection, said today that the company could still survive.

Bill Capp released a statement (click for PDF) taking issue with comparisons to Solyndra, a solar collector maker that received a $535 million loan guarantee, then abruptly shut down at the end of August, declaring bankruptcy.

Beacon Power, which makes a flywheel storage system for steadying the grid's frequency, on Sunday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Both Solyndra and Beacon Power received loans through the Department of Energy's Loan Guarantee program, which immediately … Read more

Flywheel storage maker Beacon Power declares bankruptcy

Beacon Power, which secured a $43 million federal loan guarantee to install a flywheel grid storage system, has declared bankruptcy in a case that will likely draw more complaints about government loans to small clean-energy companies.

The Tyngsboro, Mass.-based company yesterday filed for Chapter 11 protection in bankruptcy court because it was unable to raise money through the stock market. Beacon Power has never been profitable and earlier this month received a Nasdaq delisting notice after its stock had been under $1 for more than 30 days.

"The current economic and political climate, the financing terms mandated by … Read more

200 flywheels of storage to keep grid power steady

Beacon Power later this month expects to complete installation of a flywheel energy storage system on the grid, which the company says is the largest in the world.

The company said today it plans to host a ceremony for the 20-megawatt energy storage system in Stephentown, N.Y., where the flywheels supply short bursts of power to maintain a steady frequency over the grid. The storage system takes the place of natural gas plants, which grid operators ramp up and down to create an even match between electricity supply and demand.

The expected completion of the plant is a milestone … Read more

Flywheel power grid storage project gets DOE loan

Beacon Power on Monday said it has closed a $43 million loan guarantee with the Department of Energy for a project to use flywheels to buffer 20 megawatts of power on the grid.

The loan covers 62.5 percent of the estimated $69 million needed to construct the flywheel storage plant in Stephentown, N.Y. The New York Energy Research and Development Authority is also providing $2 million in funding for the plant which is now under construction.

Once done, Beacon Power said that the plant will be the only one of its kind in the world. Rather than use … Read more

Flywheels to buffer 20 megawatts on grid

Updated on November 13 at 1:11 p.m. PT to clarify and correct technical details.

Big levitated spinning disks will provide electricity to the grid in a project set to begin next month.

Flywheel energy storage company Beacon Power on Tuesday said it plans to begin construction of a 20-megawatt storage facility in Stephentown, N.Y. Provided on a continuous basis, twenty megawatts could power thousands of homes. But flywheels are used only for providing power for short periods.

Rather have many hours of stored energy on standby, the flywheels will store and dispatch bursts of electricity for what'… Read more

One megawatt of grid storage, 10 big flywheels

Beacon Power says its latest flywheel will provide one megawatt of storage to the electricity grid by the end of the year.

The company's carbon fiber flywheels, which are one meter in diameter, spin constantly at up to 16,000 revolutions per minute--a surface speed of about Mach 2, Beacon CEO William Capp explained Friday. Each 8,000-pound unit can provide 100 kilowatts of electricity for 15 minutes.

Combining 10 of those flywheels will give a utility one megawatt of storage, or 25 kilowatt hours--the equivalent of what a home consumes in a day.

Fifteen minutes of storage may … Read more

Storing energy with flying metal objects

You can store energy in chemical batteries. Pentadyne Power stores it in moving objects.

The Chatsworth, Calif.-based company has created and sells uninterruptable power supply (UPS) for data centers and large power consumers that stores energy kinetically. A 25-pound mass spins in a vacuum chamber at a high speed. When a utility needs a jolt of electricity, kinetic power is converted to electrical power. When it's not needed, the mass just spins to conserve its energy.

The company uses a relatively small mass to avoid potential mishaps (imagine what would happen if a large mass came unstuck from … Read more