Beacon said it has entered into a collaboration and development agreement with a subsidiary of wind developer Gaelectric Group of Ireland.
The agreement establishes Gaelectric as Beacon's exclusive marketing and development partner in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the U.K. According to Beacon Power, the main objectives of the agreement include the following:
Marketing and sales of multi-megawatt Beacon flywheel energy-storage systems for frequency regulation, frequency response and short-term spinning reserve;
Development of flywheel-based projects that Gaelectric would own and operate, and in which Beacon will have the option, but not the obligation, to become a co-development partner/project owner;
Development of flywheel-based projects that Beacon would own and operate, with Gaelectric having a similar option, but not the obligation, to become a co-development partner/co-owner; and
Identification of opportunities for flywheel technology on the Irish grid.
To identify the opportunities for energy storage that increase the deployment of wind, Gaelectric and Beacon jointly funded an extensive study of the Irish grid under various scenarios of future wind penetration. The study concluded that deploying fast-response flywheel technology on a very large scale would improve grid stability, reduce wind curtailment and improve the efficiency of the entire Irish grid, resulting in significant monetary and CO2 emissions savings.
“We're tremendously excited by this collaboration,” says Brendan McGrath, CEO of Gaelectric Group. “It gives us better control over our ability to develop wind projects where we want, and it complements [compressed-air energy storage], our other energy-storage offering."