Flywheels get their spin back [News]

Flywheel-based energy storage got a black eye with the 2011 bankruptcy filing of Beacon Power Corp., a leading energy storage company, based in Massachusetts, whose technology upgrades pushed flywheels to grid-scale applications. But that blemish proved ephemeral. New investors pulled Beacon Power out of bankruptcy, and last July the firm started a second commercial facility, in Hazle, Pa., to provide power-gridregulation services. Beacon is attacking new markets that would take the technology in a new direction, followed closely by new grid-scale flywheel competitors.