Beacon Power Corporation (Nasdaq:BCON), a leading provider of
advanced products and services to support a more stable, reliable
and efficient electricity grid, announced that it has entered into
a collaboration and development agreement with a subsidiary of the
Gaelectric Group of Ireland. Gaelectric is a significant wind
developer in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Montana.
The agreement establishes Gaelectric as Beacon's exclusive
marketing and development partner in the Republic of Ireland,
Northern Ireland, and the United Kingdom. The main objectives of
the agreement include:
- Marketing and sales of multi-megawatt Beacon flywheel energy
storage systems for frequency regulation, frequency response, and
short-term spinning reserve.
- Development of flywheel-based projects that Gaelectric would
own and operate, and in which Beacon will have the option, but not
the obligation, to become a co-development partner/project owner.
- Development of flywheel-based projects that Beacon would own
and operate, with Gaelectric having a similar option, but not the
obligation, to become a co-development partner/co-owner.
- To identify opportunities for flywheel technology on the Irish
grid, where a detailed model has been completed that shows
excellent potential. Both companies believe the opportunities
identified in the study have broad market potential in Europe,
North America, Asia, and other parts of the world.
In Montana, Gaelectric is currently developing up to 3,000 MW of
wind, with its first project of 430 MW expected to be commissioned
in 2014-2015. As one of the largest wind developers in that state,
Gaelectric will be closely following the progress and performance
of the 1 MW flywheel system that Beacon is installing there this
year for NorthWestern Energy.
Bill Capp, Beacon Power president and CEO, said: "Gaelectric is
a leader in wind energy and energy storage development, and they
truly understand the value of fast-response flywheel storage in
conjunction with wind. They have ambitious development plans in
Ireland, the UK and Montana, where we're already working with
NorthWestern Energy, the state utility. These are all areas that
could greatly benefit from having flywheel storage to help
stabilize wind output. Our strategic agreement takes what has
proven to be a highly positive working relationship to the next
level. We're excited by the opportunities we're focusing on,
including large-scale system sales and project co-development in
multiple markets."
Brendan McGrath, Gaelectric Group CEO, said: "Our initial focus
in developing energy storage was compressed air energy storage
(CAES), which is an hours-to-days storage solution. But as we
learned more about the energy balancing issues related to wind
deployment in Ireland, the UK and Montana, we saw the need to add a
storage solution in the seconds-to-minutes timeframe. Beacon's
flywheel technology is extremely effective in providing this
service, and their energy storage systems can be deployed
incrementally as wind assets are deployed. We're tremendously
excited by this collaboration. It gives us better control over our
ability to develop wind projects where we want, and it complements
CAES, our other energy storage offering."
Commenting on the announcement, the CEO of the Irish Wind Energy
Association, Michael Walsh, said, "The collaboration between Beacon
Power and Gaelectric highlights an innovative approach for the
integration of wind. Enabling technologies such as Beacon's
flywheel systems can complement the benefits of high wind
penetration."
Significant Wind Power Market Opportunities for
Flywheels
Ireland has a total wind penetration target of 40% by 2020, and
though it is currently at an installed level of 15%, at certain
times of the year the country experiences instantaneous wind power
generation of over 50%. This level of penetration on a island grid
requires enabling technologies for grid services to reduce wind
curtailment.
To identify the opportunities for energy storage that increased
deployment of wind will create, Gaelectric and Beacon jointly
funded an extensive study of the Irish grid under various scenarios
of future wind penetration. The study concluded that deploying
fast-response flywheel technology on a very large scale would
improve grid stability, reduce wind curtailment, and improve the
efficiency of the entire Irish grid, resulting in significant
monetary and CO2 emissions savings.
About Beacon Power
Beacon Power Corporation designs, develops and commercializes
advanced products and services to support stable, reliable and
efficient electricity grid operation. The Company's primary
business strategy is to build merchant plants and sell turnkey
regulation facilities to meet both domestic and international grid
requirements using its patented flywheel energy storage technology.
Beacon's Smart Energy Matrix, which is now in production, operating
and earning revenue, is a non-polluting, megawatt-level,
utility-grade flywheel-based solution to provide sustainable
frequency regulation services. Beacon is a publicly traded company
with its research, development and manufacturing facility in the
U.S. For more information, visit www.beaconpower.com.
About Gaelectric Group
Gaelectric is a group of companies founded in 2004 with assets
in Europe and the U.S. Each Group company is active in different
fields of renewable power generation and energy storage, with
experienced teams specialized in all aspects of project planning,
permitting, finance, engineering and management. Gaelectric is
active in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and North
America, where Gaelectric operates regional development offices.
Gaelectric North America opened its first U.S. office in Great
Falls, Montana, in 2006, and now employs 18 people in its overall
North American operation. In Montana, Gaelectric has secured
approximately 250,000 acres of high-wind resource areas, and has a
medium-term objective of bringing up to 3,000 MW of wind generation
capacity to shovel-ready stage.
About Gaelectric Energy Storage
Gaelectric Energy Storage (GES) is the storage integration arm
of Gaelectric, specializing in the commercial deployment and
development of proven energy storage technologies in grids with
high levels of renewable energy resources. It is currently focused
on the use of flywheel systems for second-to-minute range storage,
along with compressed air energy storage (CAES) for longer
duration. GES's flagship project is a CAES plant in Larne, Northern
Ireland (NI). The development of this project and Gaelectric's
activities in NI as a wind developer have given it unique insight
into the potential value of short-duration storage there and
elsewhere.
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 able to comply with the
conditions or ongoing covenants of the Federal Financing Bank loan
for our Stephentown, New York, facility; our need to comply with
any disbursement or other conditions under the DOE Smart Grid grant
program; a need to raise additional equity to fund Beacon's
projects and our other operations in uncertain financial markets;
conditions in target markets, such as that some ISOs are taking
longer than others to comply with FERC's requirement to update
market rules to include new technology such as ours, and also such
as that frequency regulation pricing is lower in the short-term
than at many times in the past; 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 current
conditions 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.
CONTACT: Chris Witty
Darrow Associates
646.438.9385
cwitty@darrowir.com
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