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Airtricity Executes Hedging Agreement for Its $231 Million Champion Wind Farm With Coral Energy Holding, L.P.

Posted on: Wednesday, 5 September 2007, 09:02 CDT

AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Airtricity, Inc., a leading renewable energy company, announced that it has executed a multi-year hedge agreement for its 126.5-megawatt Champion Wind Farm with Coral Energy Holding, L.P. (Coral), a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc. The agreement provides Champion a hedge against declines in electricity prices and facilitates bank financing of the project while allowing it to earn more if electricity prices increase. This represents the first Airtricity project in North America being constructed without the use of a traditional power purchase agreement. Additional transaction terms were not disclosed.

Champion is the second phase of the larger Roscoe project complex and is situated on approximately 14,000 acres of agricultural land 40 miles west of Abilene, Texas, alongside an Interstate highway. The project will consist of 55 Siemens 2.3 MW turbines.

The Champion Wind Farm, which is scheduled for completion by early 2008, will annually produce enough energy to power 35,000 homes and save approximately 225,000 tons per year in greenhouse gas emissions. At its peak more than 500 people will be employed in the construction of the Champion and adjacent Roscoe project. In 2006, Texas became the nation's leader in installed wind capacity and this project will help Texas meet its renewable energy goal of 5,000 new megawatts of its power from renewable sources by 2015.

"Airtricity is playing a leading role in helping Texas and America meet its fast-growing energy needs," said Airtricity North America CEO Declan Flanagan. "We are particularly excited about the structure of this deal and we are delighted to have done a deal with a company the caliber of Shell. By retaining control of the Champion output, we have the opportunity to target a wider range of customers for both power and renewable energy credits. This is consistent with our ongoing strategy to diversify and expand our customer base while enabling us to capture value from increases in electricity prices while protecting against downside risk," he said. Airtricity also announced that it has set up a new Trading and Marketing team to manage marketing the output of projects such as Champion. Darrell Hayslip, formally of Calpine, will lead Airtricity's Austin-based trading and marketing team.

"Growing the revenue line and increasing the diversity of our customer base is a key strategy for Airtricity and we are delighted to have someone of Darrell's track record in the industry on board to head this effort," said Flanagan.

Earlier this year, Airtricity announced that the company's third Texas project, the 209-megawatt Roscoe wind farm scheduled to enter commercial operation in early 2008, had executed a five-year power purchase agreement. Combined with the company's 124-megawatt Forest Creek and 90-megawatt Sand Bluff wind farms, Airtricity has already committed to approximately 550 megawatts of environmentally responsible wind generation in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and has several other projects in advanced stages of development.

"We're delighted to have been able to help Airtricity close this deal and bring more renewable energy to market," said Mark Quartermain, Coral senior vice president. "This financial risk management product was designed to meet Airtricity's specific needs and is an example of Coral's commitment to developing customer-focused solutions."

Texas is leading the world in harnessing clean, native wind energy. 2007 is set to be a record year with over 1,000 megawatts being installed. In addition to adding much needed tax revenues to school districts, the Texas wind industry is creating employment and opportunity in a range of disciplines, including construction, operations and maintenance. At its peak, more than 500 people will be employed in the construction of the Roscoe and Champion sites. Airtricity is renovating vacant commercial space in the town of Roscoe to act as its regional operations center. When complete the operations center will employ more than 20 workers.

About Airtricity

Airtricity is a world leading renewable energy company developing and operating wind farms across Europe and North America. The company has 13 wind farms in operation throughout USA, Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland resulting in 455 MW. A further 11 wind farms totaling over 600 MW are under construction with a global pipeline in excess of 10,000 MW. The company has a supply business in Ireland with 35,000 customers. The company has almost 400 employees, a turnover of $230m and has been most recently valued at $1.6bn.

Airtricity North America, headquartered in Chicago, initiated its wind power development activities in the U.S. in 2003 and Canada in 2006. Currently, Airtricity North America has completed construction of 124 MW with a further 460 MW under construction and 700 MW in final stage development backed by firm orders for turbines for delivery in 2008 through early 2009. With an additional 6,500 MW under development, Airtricity North America is well positioned to capitalize on the significant growth of wind power in the U.S. and Canada. Airtricity North America has offices in Chicago, Austin, and Toronto. For more information, please visit http://www.airtricity.com/america/.

Airtricity, Inc.

CONTACT: Holli Holsan of Edelman, +1-202-326-1719,holli.holsan@edelman.com, for Airtricity, Inc.; Majella Walsh of Airtricity,Inc., +353 1 213 0465, mwalsh@airtricity.com

Web site: http://www.airtricity.com/america

Source: PRNewswire

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