Environmental Assessment Results in “Finding of No Significant Impact”
Beacon Power Corporation (Nasdaq: BCON), a company that designs and
develops advanced products and services to support more stable, reliable
and efficient electricity grid operation, announced that the U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE) has completed its formal environmental review
of Beacon’s proposed 20-megawatt frequency regulation plant in
Stephentown, New York, and issued a “Finding of No Significant Impact”
(FONSI). In its determination, the DOE said that the plant “will not
have a significant effect on the human environment.”
This completes the environmental analysis of the project site that began
in July 2008, when the Stephentown Planning Board approved the
environmental aspects of the project, by issuing its own Negative
Clearance and Determination of Non-Significance for the project.
Under terms of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), all federal
agencies must consider the potential environmental impacts of their
proposed actions. The NEPA evaluation comprises reviews of 18 potential
environmental impacts, including public health and safety, air quality,
wetlands, threatened or endangered species, natural resources, and
geology and soil. The DOE is in the due diligence stage for a possible
loan guarantee for Beacon’s project; this FONSI determination means that
the Company’s application need not be delayed by the type of
time-consuming Environmental Impact Statement that is sometimes mandated
for projects being reviewed.
“This finding by DOE as to the minimal environmental impacts of our
proposed 20-megawatt frequency regulation plant is a major step
forward,” said Bill Capp, Beacon president and CEO. “As the first loan
guarantee finalist to complete the NEPA assessment through the Loan
Guarantee Program Office, we look forward to DOE’s completion of the
remainder of the loan process in the near future.”
A Clean and Innovative Use of Energy Storage
Beacon’s proposed 20-megawatt plant would provide frequency regulation
services by absorbing energy when it is abundant, storing it in a
flywheel energy storage system, and injecting it back as necessary to
help the grid maintain electricity frequency within a desired range (60
cycles/second being the target).
