By Sharryn Harvey, online editor, Power Engineering magazine
The U.S. departments of Energy and Treasury awarded $600 million in loan guarantees to three companies for renewable projects in July 2009. Solyndra, which received $535 million, finalized its loan in September. The other two companies, Beacon Power and Nordic Windpower USA, are still in the process of getting their loans completed, but each said they are not sitting back and waiting until that happens.
Gene Hunt, spokesman for Beacon, said the company is still preparing to close on the $43 million loan. The money would help pay for the construction and deployment of a 20 MW flywheel storage plant in Stephentown, N.Y.
"There are both legal and financial conditions that have to be met," Hunt said. "There's no timetable for when the closing might take place but we expect it will happen."
Tom Carbone, CEO of Nordic, said he hopes his company will get their $16 million loan before the end of the year. He said the loan guarantee would help the company commercialize their wind turbines.
"I think we are on track to get it done in the fourth quarter, but it depends on how quickly we can get most of our materials in," Carbone said. "We're now populating the due diligence part of the process."
Both companies said it was a long time coming for the loan guarantees. The guidelines for the applications were first made known in 2005 and it took another three years for the DOE to go through the application and review process.
In the meantime, both companies said they have since applied for other funding. Beacon Power applied for $46.7 million from the DOE's $4 billion smart grid demonstration program for two flywheel frequency regulation projects in New York and in the PJM Interconnection area. The PJM is a regional transmission organization that coordinates the movement of electricity from Pennsylvania to North Carolina and small sections across the Midwest into Illinois.
Nordic Windpower has participated in a consortium with universities and companies that are looking for ways to improve the technology, maintenance and availability of wind turbines. There was also a request from the DOE to see if manufacturers would be interested in an investor tax credit, which Nordic participated in.
Hunt said the current supply of flywheels are up and running on the New England grid and generating revenue.
"We have had 2 MW going since July and a third megawatt will be turned on before year-end," he said. "More flywheel systems are being assembled for future use either here in New England or in one of the three projects for which we've applied for DOE support."
Carbone said his company is also moving full steam ahead and is already filling orders for the company's wind turbines.
"We've deployed about $25 million of our own funds," he said. "We would be using the loan to shore up money for investment properties, tooling and new services and other things."
So, it's business as usual for the two companies. "We're not just sitting back waiting," said Carbone. "We're seeing not just an interest, but orders."
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