Beacon Power May Face Bankruptcy Liquidation, Hires Advisers

(Updates with excerpt from SEC filing in third paragraph.)

Nov. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Beacon Power Corp., an energy- storage company that received $43 million in backing from the U.S. program that supported failed Solyndra LLC, said it may face a Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation and has hired advisers to consider a sale.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey is scheduled to consider limiting Beacon’s use of U.S. Department of Energy cash at a Nov. 18 hearing in Wilmington, Delaware.

“We have retained financial and legal advisers to actively evaluate restructuring alternatives and to solicit proposals from potentially interested parties,” Beacon said in a quarterly report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed yesterday.

Beacon, based in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, listed assets of $72 million and debt of $47 million in its Oct. 30 Chapter 11 petition. Two affiliates also entered court protection.

Beacon’s first grid-scale plant, with 200 flywheels, began operating in January. The 20-megawatt facility in Stephentown, New York, was funded using the $43 million Energy Department loan guarantee issued in August 2010.

The case is In re Beacon Power Corp., 11-13450, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).

--With assistance from Phil Milford in Wilmington, Delaware. Editor: Stephen Farr

To contact the reporter on this story: Dawn McCarty in Wilmington at dmccarty@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Pickering at jpickering@bloomberg.net.