Significant Expansion of Power Generation From Renewable Energy Sources - Enovos Luxembourg S.A. Acquires a Stake in an Offshore Wind Farm

STRASSEN, Luxembourg, June 18, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Last week, Enovos Luxembourg S.A. decided to acquire a stake in the "Bard Offshore 1" wind park equivalent to 30 MW of capacity. The stake was acquired via Sudweststrom Windpark GmbH & Co KG, of which Enovos Luxembourg will hold slightly above 10%.

The offshore wind park is located about 90 km north-west of Borkum in the North Sea; the 80 wind turbine generators will be placed in an area where the water depth is about 40 m and have a generation capacity of 5 MW each, resulting in a total capacity for the park of 400 MW.

"The technical aspects of this project are impressive - the turbine housings will be placed 90 meters above sea level and the surface covered by the rotor blades has a diameter of 126 m. The wind park's annual production is 1,600 GWh," explains Daniel Christnach, Head of Renewable Energies at Enovos Luxembourg.

"The project is in an advanced stage, the sea-cable has been laid and the transformer station is operational; the first generators will feed electricity into the grid by July 2010. Our share of the farm's total annual production corresponds to the energy used by about 30,000 households - it is important to mention the high number of full load hours on the open sea which allow for a quantity of power to be produced that is comparable to the peak-load of coal-fired power plants - namely between 4,000 and 4,500 hours per year," adds Jean Lucius, CEO at Enovos Luxembourg. "Moreover, this project should foster future bilateral agreements between Germany and Luxembourg and help the Grand Duchy reach its target of 11% share of renewable energy sources of the final consumption by 2020."

Enovos Luxembourg S.A., a 100% subsidiary of Enovos International S.A.

Enovos International S.A. is - as a group - a newcomer in the energy sector, headquartered in Luxembourg, arising from the combination of three strong traditional, regionally embedded companies formerly named Soteg, Cegedel & Saar Ferngas. Enovos International S.A. is the holding company in charge of energy generator and distributor Enovos Luxembourg S.A. and grid company Creos Luxembourg S.A., with each operating their German subsidiaries, respectively.

Close to 800 employees supply about 180,000 customers with electricity and natural gas via 7,500 km power cables and 3,000 km of gas pipelines. Alongside its traditional and core business, the company develops substantially its activities in the renewable energies. The group of five companies has a 1.5 billion euros turnover.

A 28.3% stake of Enovos International S.A. is owned by the Luxembourg government and 10.8% by the state-owned investment bank S.N.C.I.. ArcelorMittal owns 25.3%, RWE 19.8%, E.ON 10.8% and Electrabel 5.1%.

SOURCE Enovos Luxembourg S.A.