Overview
Who We Are
Beacon Power is a global leader in the development and commercialization of flywheel-based energy storage solutions for grid-scale frequency regulation services and other utility-scale and unitary energy storage applications. Our goal is to use our environmentally sound flywheel technology to deliver superior performance at lower cost, and generate long-term value for our Company, our stakeholders, and society. With today's urgent need for clean energy solutions that do not burn fossil fuel, Beacon Power is well positioned to provide sustainable solutions for a broad range of energy-balancing applications in multiple global markets.
What We Do
In 2008, we began the commercial production and deployment of our patented composite flywheel technology for grid-scale frequency regulation. Our primary business model is to be an integrated provider of frequency regulation services by building, owning and operating flywheel-based frequency regulation plants on a merchant basis. We also plan to have co-investors for some of our regulation plants, and to sell some plants outright in parts of the world that lack open bid markets for frequency regulation services.
While our initial market entry application is grid-scale frequency regulation, we are actively exploring other grid-scale and unitary equipment applications for our core technology. We plan to commercialize new applications as our production costs decrease and policy and regulatory reforms create attractive market economics for selected applications.
Our History
Beacon Power Corporation was founded in 1997 as a spin-off of SatCon's Energy Systems Division, to develop advanced flywheel-based energy storage technology. We became a separate operating entity in 1998, and went public in 2000 (Nasdaq: BCON). Our first flywheel systems, the first and second generations of our technology, were deployed in North America for telecommunications backup power applications.
As the telecommunications market slowed, we applied our technology to higher-power applications, leading to the Smart Power and Smart Energy systems. Realizing the synergy between flywheel energy storage and renewable energy, in 2003 we acquired the intellectual property assets of a manufacturer of photovoltaic (solar) power conversion systems. This patented technology was applied first to a line of solar inverters, and today is being incorporated into a "smart grid" technology that Beacon is now developing.
In 2004, after meetings with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the PJM Interconnection, one of the largest grid operators in the world, we redirected our flywheel R&D program to develop a next-generation system that could "recycle" electricity from the grid, absorbing it when demand dropped and injecting it when demand increased. From 2005-07, we successfully demonstrated third-generation scale-power flywheel systems in New York and California, co-funded respectively by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the California Energy Commission, with DOE support in both cases. Based on that experience and result, we then completed development of the Smart Energy 25, our fourth-generation flywheel system. This flywheel is the basis of our grid-scale Smart Energy Matrix, which is now being commercially deployed for the regulation of grid frequency.