Europe Environnement Wins a EUR10M+ Contract to Equip Europe's Largest Solar Panel Manufacturing Plant

BORDEAUX, France, September 8, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --

- Major Reference in a Buoyant Sector

- Significant Contribution to Revenues for 2010

Following the announcement made by Air Liquide on September 6th [1], the Europe Environnement Group, a 51%-owned subsidiary of the Europlasma Group, announced the signing of a contract worth over 10 million euros with Air Liquide in connection with 3Sun building Europe's largest photovoltaic cell and panel plant in Catania, Italy.

The Europe Environnement Group, through its American subsidiary AMPlast, will be supplying Air Liquide with a gas treatment line designed to equip 3Sun's solar cell and panel production plant in Catania, Italy. This contract will draw on the combined expertise of all the Europe Environnement Group's units (gas oxidation, aeraulics, filtration, piping, scrubbers, engineering) and include a complex development section. It will be spread over 10 months, between September 2010 and July 2011.

3Sun is a solar cell and panel plant, with a production capacity of 160 MW forecast for the end of 2011, rising to 480MW by the end of 2015. 3Sun is a joint-venture between the Japanese electronics firm Sharp, the Italian energy firm Enel and the European semiconductor leader STMicroelectronics. In time, 3Sun will be Sharp's largest plant outside of Japan.

The production of solar cells based on the thin-film technique developed by Sharp involves the use of hazardous and toxic gases. These gases cannot be released into the atmosphere and require specific treatment, covered under this deal. The development of the gas section of the 3Sun plant has been assigned to the Air Liquide group, which in turn selected AMPlast as its subcontractor for the gas treatment line's design and onsite integration. The scrubbers will be manufactured in Alsace, France, in Europe Environnement's new plant which was inaugurated in 2009, and will form the visible part of the facility on the roof of the 3Sun building.

This facility will be the new reference for the Group's gas treatment capabilities, serving a buoyant new market and one of the world's top-performing plants in this field. Talks are underway concerning other projects of similar scale.

For Jean-Claude Rebischung, Chief Executive Officer of the Europe Environnement Group, "This contract represents the first concrete illustration of our change of stature in a complex business. The acquisitions made over the past few years, the additional areas of expertise deployed and the major investment made in Aspach are today enabling us to convince leading groups such as Air Liquide. It also marks Europe Environnement's arrival on a major new market: photovoltaics. Boosted by this reference, the Group is currently in talks for other similar projects."

For Didier Pineau, Chief Executive Officer of the Europlasma Group, "This success has been achieved thanks to the patient work accomplished with the managers from the Europe Environnement Group and Naxicap Partners. We have built an industrial tool by investing against the cycle in a new plant in 2009, assembled the expertise needed to carry out this type of project and acquired companies with complementary know-how, such as AMCEC and AMPlast in the US. I am delighted that we are seeing the first benefits of this strategy as early as 2010."

About Europlasma

Founded in 1992, Europlasma is a French group specialized in clean technologies and renewable energy production. The Europlasma Group is made up of four companies and 260 employees who are all firmly committed to sustainable development and experts in waste processing and reclamation.

    - Europlasma develops, produces and markets waste processing
      and energy production solutions based on its proprietary plasma torch
      technology.

    - Inertam is the global specialist for the destruction and
      reclamation of asbestos and hazardous waste.

    - CHO Power is a waste gasification power producer (EfW -
      Electricity from Waste).

    - Europe Environnement is the European market leader for
      ventilation and air depollution systems for industry.

[http://www.europlasma.com]

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[1]

http://www.airliquide.com/en/italy-major-contract-with-3sun-a-solar-joint-ven

ture-by-enel-green-power-sharp-stmicroelectronics.html

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    Press and investor contacts

    Europlasma
    Didier Pineau, Chief Executive Officer
    [email protected] - Tel: +33-5-56-49-70-00

    Calyptus
    Marie Ein / Alexis Breton
    [email protected] - Tel: +33-1-53-65-68-68

SOURCE Europlasma