Beacon Power Corporation (NASDAQ: BCON), a company that designs and develops advanced products and services to support more stable, reliable and efficient electricity grid operation, today praised last week’s enactment of the Green Communities Act, Massachusetts’s landmark energy bill. Signed into law July 2nd by Governor Deval Patrick, the Act explicitly recognizes flywheel energy storage as an alternative energy generating source.
“We regard this innovative legislation as a major energy policy achievement,” said Bill Capp, Beacon president and CEO. “Not only does it establish targets for the increased use of renewable energy resources, it goes a crucial step further by identifying technologies, including flywheel energy storage, that can play an essential role in scaling up the use of renewables.”
Studies by the California ISO, the entity that operates the majority of California’s high-voltage wholesale power grid, have shown the need for frequency regulation will increase as more renewable generation is deployed on the grid. “The Green Communities Act reflects this understanding,” said Capp. “The Act specifically names flywheel energy storage and takes steps to promote it. We applaud the efforts of the Massachusetts legislature and the Patrick administration in crafting this innovative response to one of our Country’s most pressing issues.”
The new law also stipulates that the Commonwealth’s Department of Energy Resources “shall make available. . . grants or other financial incentives” to eligible recipients, including “commonwealth-based companies engaged in developing flywheel energy storage technologies.”
More information about the Green Communities Act is expected to be available in the next few days on the Massachusetts State Government website under a new Chapter 169 at http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/seslaw08/index.htm.
About Beacon Power
Beacon Power Corporation designs, develops and is taking steps to commercialize advanced products and services to support stable, reliable and efficient electricity grid operation. The Company’s primary business strategy is to commercialize its patented flywheel energy storage technology to perform frequency regulation services on the grid. Beacon's Smart Energy Matrix, now entering production, is designed to be a non-polluting, megawatt-level, utility-grade flywheel-based solution that would 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.
Safe Harbor Statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This 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 and financial performances. These “forward-looking” statements are identified by the use of terms and phrases such as “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 Power Corporation’s expectation. These factors include: a short operating history; a history of losses and anticipated continued losses from operations; a need to raise additional capital combined with a questionable ability to do so; 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 successful in obtaining DOE loan guarantee support for our New York facility; conditions in target markets, including the fact that some ISOs have been slow to comply with the FERC’s requirement to update market rules to include new technology such as the Company’s; our ability to obtain site interconnection or other zoning and construction approvals in a timely manner; no experience manufacturing any product or supplying frequency regulation services on a commercial basis; limited commercial contracts for sales to date; the dependence of sales on the achievement of product optimization, manufacturing and commercialization milestones; the uncertainty of the political and economic climate, and the different electrical grid characteristics and requirements of any foreign countries into which we hope to sell or operate, including the uncertainty of enforcing contracts, the different market structures, and the potential substantial fluctuation in currency exchange rates in those countries; 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, including the effect of the patent litigation recently initiated against us; 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. These factors are elaborated upon and other factors may be disclosed from time to time in Beacon Power Corporation’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Beacon Power expressly does not undertake any duty to update forward-looking statements.
Contacts:
James Spiezio, 978-694-9121
spiezio@beaconpower.com
or
Gene
Hunt, 978-661-2825
hunt@beaconpower.com
