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Beacon Power goes bankrupt

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Very unfortunate. I'm very familiar with this company, and they have a good product -- one that actually works and is gaining traction in the market. Their problem is/was that the service they provide -- extremely fast reserve power -- isn't particularly valued for most applications. Their flywheels don't store much energy (only 15 minutes at full discharge), but they can release that energy to balance the grid astoundingly quickly . The perfect storage device would store a LOT more power (at least 4 hours).

Hopefully, Beacon Power's technology will get picked up by some deeper-pocket firm, like GE or Siemens, that can really get this technology in play.
 
They even managed to secure a patent for a microgrid stabilized by a storage device, which was quite an accomplishment. I think that V2G companies would have run the flywheels out of business anyhow because it's much easier to get the same frequency regulation and reserves from batteries that are used primarily for other purposes.