EPURON sells three wind farms to Australian energy provider

- Origin Energy secures project rights for total of 90 megawatts

- Strategic agreement reached about sale of further 500 megawatts

Hamburg/Sydney, January 22, 2008: The Sydney-based subsidiary of EPURON GmbH has agreed to sell the project rights of three wind farms to the Australian energy provider, Origin Energy. Additionally, both companies formed a strategic agreement, which grants Origin the option to buy additional wind-power projects up to a total of 500 megawatt. This deal—in combination with the one gigawatt project in Silverton—has brought EPURON closer to realising its Australian wind energy pipeline.

Joachim Müller, manager with EPURON and responsible for wind energy and the financing, explained, "By doing business with Origin, we are enlarging our position on the Australian market. Our team in Sydney has excellent connections, for instance, having access to attractive financial partners and at the same time being able to deal with large energy providers about the purchase of electricity and projects."

The three wind farms that were sold, Cullerin Range, Snowy Plains and Conroy's Gap, will each have a wind power capacity of 30 megawatts. All proposed wind farms are located in extremely windy regions in New South Wales. Developing consent has already been obtained for all projects. Construction of the Cullerin Range wind farm is planned to start in 2008 with commissioning expected to commence in the first quarter of 2009. In addition, EPURON is proposing a further wind farm with a total capacity of 240 megawatts, which will already cover almost half of the strategic agreement with Origin.

Origin is one of the largest energy providers in Australia with a market capitalisation of over 4 billion euro. The listed company, with its headquarters in Sydney, is operating now, for the first time, its own wind facilities in order to provide clean electricity to its customers. "Origin is well placed to support the climate protection targets of the new Federal Government policy - 20% renewables by 2020", stated Grant King gladly, Managing Director of the company.