Beacon Power Announces Second-Quarter Financial Results Company Achieves Key Milestones Including Delivery of Commercial Test Units to Verizon
Tuesday, July 31, 2001 08:40:48 AM - PR Newswire
WILMINGTON, Mass., Jul 31, 2001 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Beacon Power
Corporation (Nasdaq: BCON), a leading manufacturer of flywheel energy storage
systems that provide highly reliable, high-quality uninterruptible electric
power, today announced its financial results for the second quarter ended June
30, 2001.
For the second quarter of 2001, Beacon Power reported a net loss of $6.3
million, or ($0.15) per share, compared to a net loss of $2.5 million in the
second quarter of 2000. In the second quarter of 2001, Beacon invested $4.2
million on R&D, $2.4 million on SG&A and had depreciation costs of $0.3 million,
partially offset by other income of $0.6 million. As of June 30, 2001, Beacon
Power had $47.9 million in cash and cash equivalents.
"We continued to achieve the milestones necessary to transition from a
development-stage company to the world's leading producer of leading-edge
flywheel systems," said Beacon Power President and Chief Executive Officer
William E. Stanton. "We are particularly pleased with our progress in satisfying
Verizon's milestones by demonstrating the rapid installation of our flywheel
system and our commercial electronics control module. We recently installed
several of our Model 20C1000 Flywheel Energy Storage Systems (FESS) to provide
standby power at one of Verizon's remote terminal sites. The flywheel systems
replace existing battery-powered systems and are providing back up power to
approximately 1,000 Verizon subscribers. They represent Beacon's final
commercial-grade products, and their installation is the next step in an ongoing
Verizon field trial, prior to an initial production contract."
"Also during the quarter, we achieved another significant milestone with the
certification of our flywheel and associated control electronics by Underwriters
Laboratories (UL)," continued Stanton. "This means that our products have met
the most stringent product safety testing standards for mechanical and
electrical systems. Beacon currently has the only UL-certified composite
flywheel energy storage system sized to meet the power and duration requirements
of the telecommunications industry. UL certification will facilitate the roll
out of our products to utility and telecommunications customers and will speed
the listing process for future product offerings, including our 6kWh FESS unit
under development."
"Less than four months after beginning the full-scale development of our 6kWh
prototype flywheel, we are achieving breakthrough performance," stated Stanton.
"Last month, our engineering prototypes completed performance tests at their
rated operating speed of 22,500 rpm and set a new performance record in the
flywheel energy storage industry by providing continuous back-up power for up to
30 hours. We are ahead of our schedule on these 6kWh units and expect
manufacturing qualification before the end of the year, with beta units
available in the field during the fourth quarter of 2001."
"We made strides during the quarter in developing our sales and marketing
organization," said Stanton. "We hired four senior sales professionals, bringing
to five the number of sales managers covering major regions of the United
States. These professionals have sold extensively into the power and energy
technology capital goods sector and have experience in such companies as Best
Power, Exide, Peco, and Powerware."
"We are also excited about our efforts in forming strategic alliances to expand
our product line and channels to the power quality and distributed generation
markets," added Stanton. "In addition to our previously announced partnership
with Urenco for high-power composite flywheel systems, we are also actively
pursuing other alliances with several of the world's largest energy and power
equipment companies on commercialization and development agreements."
"All of these developments point to solid progress in our transition to a
commercial manufacturer of power reliability solutions," continued Stanton.
"Year to date, Beacon has shipped 10 production units and we expect to ship an
additional 40 units by the end of the year. We also continue to build out our
infrastructure and manufacturing capabilities. In June, we began manufacturing a
simplified version of the Beacon 2kWh flywheel system containing fewer parts,
which is easier to assemble and quicker to install. Shipments of these systems
will begin in the third quarter."
Concluded Stanton, "Beacon remains uniquely positioned in the industry to
capitalize on the $4 billion opportunity for communications and power quality
and reliability solutions. We are on track with our progress to penetrate this
exciting market, and our business outlook is excellent. I look forward to
reporting further progress to Beacon Power's shareholders in the coming
quarters."
The Market Opportunity for Flywheel Energy Storage Systems
The digital economy has created a burgeoning demand for reliable, high-quality
electric power -- what some analysts estimate as a $12 billion market. The
continuing power disruptions nationwide are a reminder of the problems caused by
unreliable power. Beacon Power has initially targeted the $4 billion
communications segment of this market. The company's family of Flywheel Energy
Storage Systems is designed to replace the conventional lead-acid battery
systems that today supply back-up power for broadband cable and telecom
networks. Like battery backup systems, Beacon Power's flywheel technology
provides uninterruptible emergency power until the primary supply of electricity
is restored. But, compared to lead-acid batteries, Beacon Power's flywheel
systems offer superior reliability, are insensitive to temperature fluctuations,
have a lower life-cycle cost, and do not contain toxic materials or fluids. They
also last much longer than batteries, require less maintenance and can be
reliably monitored remotely via modem or the Internet.
Conference Call Information
Beacon Power will host a conference call today, July 31, at 11:00 a.m., Eastern
Daylight Time. The call will also be broadcast live, via the Internet, at
Beacon's Web site, www.beaconpower.com . |
