Beacon Power to Begin Construction of Nation's First Flywheel Frequency Regulation Plant

TYNGSBORO, Mass., Nov 10, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) --
BCON | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- 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 that it will begin
construction on the nation's first full-scale 20-megawatt (MW) flywheel
frequency regulation plant during the week of November 23rd, at its site
in Stephentown, New York.

All state and local construction-related permits and approvals for the
plant have now been received. Beacon will start initial site work while
continuing to progress toward closing a $43-million loan with the
Federal Finance Bank, with the support of the U.S. Department of Energy
and a loan guarantee commitment that Beacon received earlier this year.
The loan is intended to support construction of the plant.

"We're extremely pleased to be breaking ground on our first 20-megawatt
flywheel plant this month," said Bill Capp, Beacon president and CEO.
"Thanks to the support of a number of agencies, organizations and
individuals, including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,
Department of Energy, New York ISO, the New York State Energy Research
and Development Authority and the Public Service Commission, as well as
local officials in Stephentown, we can now move forward with
construction."

A Clean and Innovative Use of Energy Storage

Frequency regulation is an essential grid service that is performed by
maintaining a tight balance between electricity supply and demand.
Beacon's 20 MW plant has been designed to provide frequency regulation
services by absorbing electricity from the grid when there is too much,
and storing it as kinetic energy in a matrix of flywheel systems. When
there is not enough power to meet demand, the flywheels then inject it
back into the grid, thus helping maintain proper electricity frequency
(i.e., 60 cycles/second). Thanks to its ability to recycle electricity
efficiently and act like a "shock absorber" to the grid, the flywheel
plant will help also support the integration of greater amounts of
intermittent wind and solar power resources. However, unlike
conventional fossil fuel-powered generators that provide frequency
regulation, Beacon's plant will not consume any fuel, nor will it
directly produce CO2 greenhouse gas emissions or other air
pollutants such as NOX or SO2.

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, which
is now in production, is a non-polluting, megawatt-level, utility-grade
flywheel-based solution to 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, financial performances, and project development. These
"forward-looking" statements are identified by the use of terms and
phrases such as "will," "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's expectation. These
factors include: a short operating history; a history of losses and
anticipated continued losses from operations; uncertainties relating to
the success of Beacon's DOE grant proposals; 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 finalizing the DOE loan guarantee support for
our Stephentown, New York, facility, or complying with the conditions or
ongoing covenants of that support; a need to raise additional equity to
fund the project and Beacon's other operations in uncertain financial
markets; conditions in target markets, including the fact that some ISOs
have been slow to comply with FERC's requirement to update market rules
to include new technology such as the Company's; our ability to obtain
site interconnection approvals, landlord approvals, or other zoning and
construction approvals in a timely manner; limited experience
manufacturing commercial products or supplying frequency regulation
services on a commercial basis; limited commercial contracts for
revenues to date; the dependence of revenues 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; 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, especially in view of the
current situation in the financial markets generally. These factors are
elaborated upon and other factors may be disclosed from time to time in
Beacon Power filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Beacon
Power expressly does not undertake any duty to update forward-looking
statements.

SOURCE: Beacon Power Corporation

Beacon Power Corporation 
James Spiezio, 978-694-9121 
spiezio@beaconpower.com 
or 
Gene Hunt, 978-661-2825 
hunt@beaconpower.com

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