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Beacon Power Wins Environmental Approval to Build 20 MW Flywheel Plant in Stephentown, New York Business Wire "US Press Releases "
TYNGSBORO, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
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, announced today that it has gained the necessary environmental approval to build its first 20-megawatt flywheel frequency regulation plant in Stephentown, New York . The approval, referred to as a "negative declaration" under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), was granted by the Stephentown Planning Board during a meeting held on May 15, 2008 . The Board's vote on the declaration was 5-0.
Beacon Power has now complied with or passed all relevant federal, state and county environmental, wildlife and archeological requirements for the proposed plant. Due in part to the late hour and additional items on the Stephentown Board's agenda, a secondary vote on a special permit to allow the site to be used for a utility purpose was deferred until the Board's next meeting on June 19th . This permit, which is customarily issued following a SEQRA negative declaration, was also recommended for approval by the town's engineer.
"We are very pleased that the Stephentown Planning Board was able to reach this decision," said Bill Capp, president and CEO of Beacon Power. "Their favorable vote on the negative declaration was based on considerable evidence that we supplied that satisfactorily addressed the 20 stringent criteria of the SEQRA program. In every case we had to demonstrate that our project would have little or no environmental impact. The Stephentown consulting engineer who reviewed our documentation gave a favorable opinion, and in the formal vote the Board unanimously agreed. We expect the Board to accept the engineer's recommendation and approve the special permit next month."
Beacon plans to have multi-megawatt flywheel frequency regulation plants running in two locations before year end. In addition to the continued favorable progress in New York and Massachusetts , the Company is also developing sites in the PJM Interconnection grid operating region.
About the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA)
In New York , town boards and other government agencies must comply with strict procedures for the review of environmental impacts of proposed projects before they can be approved. This environmental impact review is mandated and guided by SEQRA and its implementing regulations. If, after looking a developer's plans and technical documents - and taking into account public comments - the agency cannot find any significant adverse impacts that might result from its approval, it may issue a "negative declaration." A negative declaration states that not a single significant adverse impact could come of the agency's action. Once this has been determined, the SEQRA review is complete.
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 following approval for use in three of the country's five open-bid regulation markets, 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 |
