Beacon Power Corp.’s (Nasdaq: BCON) primary business strategy is to commercialize its patented flywheel energy-storage technology to perform frequency regulation services on the grid through design and development to provide advanced products and services for grid operation. The company’s SmartEnergy Matrix is designed to be a non-polluting, megawatt-level solution to provide frequency regulation services.

The company today announced that the planning board in Stephentown, New York voted to issue a Special Use Permit for the company’s planned 20-megawatt frequency regulation plant. The decision is the final approval needed to open the site for the new plant. Bill Capp, Beacon Power president and CEO, said the ruling will allow the company to move forward in working with the community and to begin the securitization of building permits and to launch development efforts.

“This important vote in our favor by the planning board is another key step toward building a frequency regulation plant in Stephentown,” Capp stated. “We’re grateful to the board for its vision and fairness in evaluating our project, and we look forward to working with the community in the months ahead.”

Following the decision, Beacon can now exercise an option it holds to purchase the 7-acre parcel in Stephentown where it plans to build the frequency regulation plant, one of two facilities it plans to establish by the end of the year. The company is considering one of two locations in Stephentown or Beacon’s Tyngsboro headquarters, as well as a site in Ohio.

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