Beacon has received the funding from DOE as a part of the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) grant. The three-year R&D program, which is expected to begin later this year, is valued at $2.8m, pending contractual agreement. Beacon would provide $560,000, or 20% of the $2.8m program total.
Beacon proposes to use the DOE funding to develop a flywheel energy storage module with a size of 100kWh and 100kW that would be capable of more than 40,000 full charge/discharge cycles in its lifetime to achieve a cost per storage cycle below ARPA-E’s goal of $0.025/kWh.
With the ARPA-E funding, Beacon hopes to create a flywheel system that would be suitable for applications including ramping and load following support for wind and solar power to reduce the need for standby regional peak power generator capacity; wind-diesel-storage hybrid systems that reduce diesel fuel consumption on island-based grids; and uninterruptible power supply applications that require an hour or more of assured power.
Bill Capp, president and CEO of Beacon, said: “The storage capacity of our current Gen 4 flywheel is unmatched by any other flywheel-based product, and its cycling capabilities and 20-year operational life are already well ahead of any chemical battery system.”
