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Source: Cnet:
Beacon Power later this month expects to complete installation of a flywheel energy storage system on the grid, which the company says is the largest in the world. The company said today it plans to host a ceremony for the 20-megawatt energy storage system in Stephentown, N.Y., where the flywheels supply short bursts of power to maintain a steady frequency over the grid. The storage system takes the place of natural gas plants, which grid operators ramp up and down to create an even match between electricity supply and demand. The expected completion of the plant is a milestone for flywheel-based storage, which has been used for tests and smaller, 1-megawatt systems. Beacon Power's spinning flywheels, which are made of carbon fiber and levitated in a vacuum by magnets, absorb energy from the grid and discharge 1 megawatt for as much as 15 minutes. The company, which received a million Department of Energy loan guarantee for the plant, plans to use the same flywheel-based system for other energy storage applications, such as buffering power production from wind farms. Flywheels compete with truck-container-size lithium ion batteries which have been used on the grid for similar uses. Beacon Power's business model has helped get the technology onto the grid. Rather than sell hardware to utilities, it sells grid services, such as frequency regulation, to grid operators normally supplied by natural gas plant operators. It owns and runs the plants. Flywheel storage has been used as backup power for telecommunications systems but only started being used on the grid in the past few years. Beacon Power said that 18 megawatts worth of power is now online and that the system will be fully commissioned later this month. The opening ceremony is June 12. Beacon Power on Monday said it has closed a million loan guarantee with the Department of Energy for a project to use flywheels to buffer 20 megawatts of power on the grid. The loan covers 62.5 percent of the estimated million needed to construct the flywheel storage plant in Stephentown, N.Y. The New York Energy Research and Development Authority is also providing million in funding for the plant which is now under construction. A Beacon Power flywheel spins to store electricity from the grid as kinetic energy where it can be quickly dispersed back onto the grid for frequency regulation. A Beacon Power flywheel spins to store electricity from the grid as kinetic energy where it can be quickly dispersed back onto the grid for frequency regulation. (Credit: Beacon Power) Once done, Beacon Power said that the plant will be the only one of its kind in the world. Rather than use a large battery, it will use a network of 200 flywheels to store electricity from the grid as kinetic energy and disperse it in quick bursts of up to 15 minutes. Right now, grid operators typically use natural gas power plants to maintain a balance between supply and demand and keep a steady frequency of 60 cycles per second. The Stephentown project, expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter next year, will be able to provide 10 percent of the frequency regulation services in New York needed on a typical day. The project is significant step up for the technology, which so far has been used in smaller-scale installation of about one megawatt of power. The New York storage installation paves the way for higher penetration of solar and wind power generation. Since they are variable sources of power, utilities are looking at different forms of grid storage to smooth out the delivery of power from renewable sources. Beacon Power, based in Tyngsboro, Mass., has benefited significantly from federal and state policies aimed at boosting clean-energy technologies. In addition to the DOE loan guarantee, which took more than two years to secure, Beacon Power has received money for technology demonstrations, such as attached flywheel storage to the Tehachapi wind project in California.