Flywheel

John Petersen In 1883 Thomas Edison said, "The storage battery is one of those peculiar things which appeals to the imagination, and no more perfect thing could be desired by stock swindlers than that very selfsame thing. ... Just as soon as a man gets working on the secondary battery it brings out his latent capacity for lying." The problem isn't so much the batteries, which haven't improved all that much over the last century. Instead, the problem lies in the fertile imaginations of scientists, engineers, politicians, ideologues, analysts and investors who focus on new energy...

Beacon Power Corp (BCON) announced that it has been awarded a contract through the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), and co-funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the U.S. Department of Defense. The contract, valued at $750,000, is for the preliminary design of a space-based flywheel energy storage system for satellite applications, and is a Phase II award under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Technology. Beacon announced completion of an associated Phase I project earlier this year. This was welcome news for this company...

Beacon Power Corp (BCON) announced that it recently delivered, installed and connected a scale-power Smart Energy Matrix demonstration system to the electricity grid in Amsterdam, New York. After arriving at the site, the system was connected and turned up to full power, and is now following and responding to live ISO-specified requirements to demonstrate frequency regulation. The project, jointly funded by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Storage Program, is the second such scale-power system Beacon has delivered, in addition to a similar system in California. ...

John Petersen Last month Lux Research released a bottom-up evaluation of the cost effectiveness of eight energy storage technologies in six grid-scale applications throughout 44 countries, including all 50 U.S. states. Their report titled "Grid Storage under the Microscope: Using Local Knowledge to Forecast Global Demand" predicts that annual global demand for grid-scale energy storage will reach an astounding 185.4 gigawatt-hours (GWh) by 2017 and represent a $113.5 billion incremental revenue opportunity for an industry that currently generates sales of $50 to $60 billion a year. In the grid-scale sector alone, Lux predicts an average...

Beacon Power Corp (BCON) announced that it has recently been awarded a United States patent for the unique design and construction of its composite flywheel rim, and that a few days ago, it received a written notification that another U.S. patent on the rim is to be granted in early February 2005. The composite rim is a key component of a flywheel energy storage system, as a rim's mass and ability to spin at high speeds have a direct relationship to the amount of energy that can be stored. Beacon Power, a pioneer in this technology, has been...

John Petersen With only a couple trading days left in 2009, this is as good a time as any for a performance review. The predictions I made at this time last year were pretty solid with an 80% accuracy rate on price direction. For the year, a $1,000 investment in each of my green star companies would have yielded a portfolio appreciation of 67%, which handily beat the broader market indices. That being said, my star and caution ratings were a good deal less prescient because I seriously underestimated the potential of both Maxwell Technologies (MXWL) and Active...

America’s electric power grid is subject to immense inefficiencies that arise from the interplay between centralized power generation, local power consumption and on demand utility service. To put things into a broad perspective, the nameplate capacity of U.S. generating facilities is about 1 million Megawatts (MW), so if all of our power plants ran 24/7 we would have a theoretical annual generating capacity of 8.7 billion Megawatt-hours (MWh). Since demand for electricity fluctuates on both a daily and seasonal basis, total electric power generation in 2007 was only 4.2 billion MWh, or less than 50% of nameplate...

Beacon Power Corp (BCON) announced that yesterday it received from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) an executed contract between Beacon Power and NYSERDA under a joint initiative between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Storage Research Program and NYSERDA, to demonstrate an advanced energy storage solution for frequency regulation and grid stability in New York State. The contract is expected to produce approximately $645,000 of revenue, nearly all of it in 2005. The stock is trading up over 20% today on this news.

Active Power Inc (ACPW) announced that the largest airport in Mexico, Aeropuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de Mexico (AICM), has selected its battery-free CleanSource® UPS to protect runway and taxiway lighting. Additionally, a new terminal that will begin construction this year will also be supported by Active Power's battery-free systems. Deliveries against this order started in Q4 of 2005 and will continue through the first half of 2006. Active Power is following a good business model of selling into a niche that it already has a good presence in (FuelCell Energy has a similar practice with Hotels.)...

Active Power Inc (ACPW) announced the details behind its latest breakthrough in alternative energy storage. The new technology, based upon the innovative combination of several mature technologies, constitutes a monumental achievement in energy storage by providing the extended runtimes of lead-acid batteries without any of the well-known shortcomings of these cells. This Thermal and Compressed Air Storage (TACAS) technology will be incorporated into Active Power's newest product that will begin shipping as an alpha unit late this year, the CleanSource® XR.

Beacon Power Corp (BCON) announced that on November 17 it received a letter dated November 16, 2004 from the Nasdaq Stock Market, stating that the Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Panel has granted the Company an additional 180 days to regain compliance with marketplace Rule 4310(c)(4). What this means is that Beacon is going to do everything in its power to get the stock price back above $1. They had a nice run up to .80 in October but have since fallen back down to the .40 range. Shares in BCON are up 10% today on this reprieve.

Beacon Power Corp (BCON) announced that on March 2, 2005, it received a letter from The NASDAQ Stock Market stating that because the closing bid price of the Beacon's common stock has been at $1.00 per share or greater for at least 10 consecutive business days, Beacon has regained compliance with Marketplace Rule 4310(c)(4). This is wonderful news for BCON.

Tom Konrad CFA How material is the failure of one of Beacon Power's (BCON) flywheels on July 27?<a href="http://www.altenergystocks.com/comm/content/beacon-power-corporation/" beacon="" power's="" (bcon) Last week, I published an article Four Clean Energy Value Stocks I'm Buying Now, including Beacon Power as one of the four.  My rationale for including Beacon was: Beacon has been operating their first commercial scale 20MW flywheel energy storage plant  since early this year without mishap, achieving full capacity in June.  They are set to begin construction of their second 20MW plant later this year, 54% of...

John Petersen In December 2008 I went hunting for opportunities in the energy storage sector and selected six pure-play stocks that seemed seriously undervalued. I bought Enersys (ENS) at $6.00, Exide Technologies (XIDE) at $2.00 and Active Power (ACPW) at $0.26. While Enersys and Exide have been fabulous performers with appreciation to date of 442% and 397%, respectively, Active Power has been the runaway champion with appreciation to date of 923%. My other three picks have performed poorly. C&D Technologies (CHHP.PK) is down 96% and finalizing a restructuring that will give 95% of its equity to...

Beacon Power Corp (BCON) was up over 147% at the close today. This move was primarily based on two project wins. One with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the other with the California Energy Commission. The projects would have Beacon Power provide grid frequency regulation and reactive power by utilizing its flywheel energy storage system. The final terms and conditions of the projects have not been disclosed.

Beacon Power Corp (BCON) reported revenue of $304,064, compared to revenue of $80,902 in the third quarter of 2004, an increase of $223,162, or 276%. Revenues for the nine months ending September 30, 2005, were $1,258,503, compared to $264,793 for the same period in 2004, an increase of $993,710, or 375%. Beacon Power reported a net loss of $2.1 million, or ($0.04) per share, compared to a net loss of $1.9 million or ($0.04) per share for the third quarter of 2005 and 2004, respectively, representing an increase of approximately $0.2 million or 16%. They ended the...