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Acciona, a World Leader in Wind Development, Celebrates Completion of First Wind Turbine Production Plant in U.S.

Posted on: Thursday, 17 January 2008, 15:00 CST

Acciona today celebrated the opening of its first wind turbine generator production plant in the United States. The $23 million project was constructed in seven months.

Iowa Governor Chet Culver, Sandy Hatfield, Mayor of West Branch, and University of Iowa President, Sally Mason, joined company executives and guests for the facility's official dedication.

The facility measures a total of 200,190 square feet. Ryan Companies served as developer and architect.

The celebration was held at the company's West Branch facility, 601 Fawcett Drive (formerly 300th Street/Sauer Blvd.), in West Branch at 11 a.m. CST.

The plant will provide more than 100 new jobs and will produce 200 wind turbines in 2008, with plans to increase to 400 turbines per year in the future. The facility will supply turbines primarily for Acciona Energy wind farms throughout North America and will utilize proprietary technology from its wind turbine manufacturing subsidiary, Acciona Windpower, to produce its AWP 1.5-77 models.

Acciona also announced a $15,000 gift to the City of West Branch in recognition of their support for the project. The money will go toward the city's downtown enhancement effort.

Senior executives from Acciona's management team in Spain joined the festivities to commemorate this significant company milestone.

The Acciona project was aided by the Iowa Department of Economic Development, City of West Branch, Iowa City Area Development Group and Cedar County Economic Development Commission.

The new plant at West Branch is Acciona's fourth installed, with two plants currently operational in Spain and one in China. Acciona's West Branch plant will increase the company's total production capacity up to 2,280 MW a year.

About Acciona

ACCIONA Energy is a world leader in renewables with a strong presence in eight sectors. It is the first developer of windparks in the world with more than 5,300 MW installed in twelve countries. Through ACCIONA Windpower it manufactures wind turbines using proprietary technology. The company recently launched Nevada Solar OneTM, the largest solar thermal power plant (64 MW) built in the world in the last 17 years, has installed more than 40 MW of photovoltaic and 29 MW of solar hot water power in Spain, and owns three biomass plants (33 MW) and 19 small hydro power stations (59 MW). In the field of biofuels, the company produces biodiesel from vegetable oil and biotethanol from wine-surplus alcohol.

ACCIONA is one of Spain's largest corporations, with activities in more than thirty countries on five continents in the development and management of infrastructures, renewable energy sources, hydro plants, urban and environmental services, logistics and transport, housing projects and hospital management, among others. It has a workforce of more than 38,000 worldwide and is quoted on the IBEX-35 (ANA.MC) index in Spain with a capitalization of more than US$18 billion.

Source: Business Wire

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