Beacon Power Ramps Up Production Plans To Construct New Energy Storage Plant

Published: 03-Feb-2010

Beacon Power has said that it plans to hire approximately 50 new employees this year at its Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, headquarters, as it ramps up production of its grid-scale flywheel energy storage systems. The flywheels being produced this year will be installed at Beacon’s 20MW plant in Stephentown, New York, which is currently under construction.

A portion of this first plant is expected to begin earning revenue by providing frequency regulation, a grid-balancing service, on the New York State electricity grid in the fourth quarter of this year.

The company said that the decision to expand the company’s workforce comes following a series of positive developments, including more than a full year of successful operation on the New England grid; a $43m conditional loan guarantee commitment from the US Department of Energy (DOE); and the award of a $24m DOE smart grid stimulus grant.

Beacon also raised $20m in equity investment in December, a portion of which will provide the remaining capital required to close the DOE loan and build the company’s first full-scale 20MW plant.

Bill Capp, president and CEO of Beacon Power, said: ''With the help of the US Department of Energy, which is supporting our first two full-scale plants, we are now committing to the expansion of our manufacturing capacity.

''In addition to the hiring in Tyngsboro, we issued significant purchase commitments to our supplier base, which will create additional jobs in the region and other parts of the country. This growth in domestic clean energy jobs is helping to meet an important policy goal of the Obama administration.''

Beacon Power is hiring a variety of professionals including hardware engineers, project managers, market data analysts, and sales directors (both US and international), as well as offering positions in purchasing, finance, site development, manufacturing and production.

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