May 19 2008
Beacon Power Corporation, 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.