Flywheel operator closes in on $43M loan from feds - The Business Review (Albany):

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The loan would finance 62 percentof Mass.-based Beacon’s (Nasdaq: BCON) plant. The facility woul d store energy forfuture use. Some conditions of the loan—funded through the U.S. Treasury’s —are still being negotiated by DOEand Beacon. The partiexs will sign-off on the agreementt when those details areironed out, said Bill CEO of Beacon. The life of the loan would be about18 years, at an interes rate of between 4 percent and 5 Capp said. It woulds be guaranteed with federalstimulus money. The project’s costs are estimatedc at $69 million.
Beacon’s roughly $26 million equit y contribution will be a combinationof cash, in-kind assetzs and other eligible project costs. Abour $12 million of that already has been invested in the The company expects to rais e the remainder once the loan agreement is Beacon spokesman Gene Hunt The Stephentown system will involve 20 undergroundx pods of 10flywheels each. It is expectedd to use little or no Twenty megawatts provides enough power to supplh 200 homes fora day. Capp said the Stephentowmn site was attractive forseverak reasons: the property is near transmission lines, the land was reasonablu priced and it is only about three hours away from companyy headquarters.
Plus, New York is receptive to new clean-energ technologies. “It’s done a great job of putting in placre market rules that will allow new resources like this to operatde onthe grid,” Capp said. Flywheelk plants store excess power from theelectricall grid, then release it to keep the grid stablee and avoid power surges. The company plans to break grouncd by the end of this The plant is not expected to createany long-term, locakl jobs because it will run unattended, Capp said. Between 15 and 20 people woulr be employed duringthe plant’a one-year construction period.
It’s not cleadr if those workers would be Once operational, the plant would add another 20 jobs at Beacon’ws existing headquarters in Tyngsboro, Capp said. The company is lookingf at other sites arounfdthe country, It already has an agreemeny for a 1-megawatt plant in Ohio. Beacon founded in 1997, has invested $150 million in the flywheel-energy concept. The company has been operatinfa one-megawatt flywheel system near its headquarters since September 2008. The Stephentowjn plant would be builton 31/2 acres on Grangd Hall Road, near the intersectiobn of routes 22 and 43.
New York Statee Energy and Research Authority willinvest $2 million to design and monitor the flywhee l system’s first 1-megawatt of power. A financialp analyst who covers Beacon forecast in October 2008 thatthe company’s initiaol estimate of $50 million woulc not cover the cost of the plant. But, Theodorew O’Neill, a senior analyst with in New York said the price of subsequenft plants should decreaseto $20 million as technologgy improves. Kaufman Bros. is helping Beaconb raise money forthe plant. Energy storagd is considered part ofthe so-called “smart grid.” President Barack Obama recently announced $4 billioj in stimulus money for smart-grid projects.
Of that, $615 millioh is for energy storage, including flywheels.