Beacon Wins U.S. Energy System Contract (20 MW flywheel storage)

[jpak]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4163897.html

WILMINGTON, Mass. — Beacon Power Corp., a developer of energy storage systems, said Tuesday the U.S. Department of Energy awarded it a $752,500 contract to design a power plant using its flywheel-based system.

The contract, which will be administered by Sandia National Laboratories, calls for designing a 20-megawatt Smart Energy Matrix frequency regulation power plant. Sandia Laboratories is operated by Sandia Corp., part of Lockheed Martin Co., for the energy department's National Nuclear Security Administration.

Beacon's flywheel energy storage system harnesses electricity from an existing power source, stores it, and then delivers it as needed if there is a power failure or disruption. The plant is a prototype for a nonpolluting, megawatt-level and utility grade energy producer, the company said.

The contract, which amounts to half of the company's 2005 revenue, will be stretched out over 12 months and pay for part of the system's expected development costs. Beacon will complete a comparison study and a cost-benefits analyses of the new technology with conventional technology. Part of the contract involves ranking potential plant locations.

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[hunter]

1. Things that make you go hmmmmm...

It sounds like somebody at Sandia needed a machine that could do that and Beacon had it.

[skids]

2. They must be sick of tending to their batteries for something.

Or large capacitor banks. It's nice to see Beacon open a second marketplace. I hope they don't let the household consumer product slip by as a result, though.

[mainegreen]

3. So when did they solve the material problem for the flywheels?

I seem to remember five years back that the huge issues with flywheels was that they had not found a material that was safe enough at the high speeds, density, and sizes that commercial flywheels would need to be? Or did they switch to tons of teeny flywheels?

[phantom power]

4. beacon uses metal. They spin up to a safe speed. And they can be buried

[JohnWxy]

5. I missed this. Hard to keep up with this guy!

[eppur_se_muova]

6. Where'd the link go? "No Such Article" nt