Energy Globe Awards - Solar Millennium receives prize for Andasol Projects

• National winner project for Spain
• Nomination for the Energy Globe World Award

Erlangen, 26.05.2008 Solar Millennium AG, Erlangen has been nominated for the Energy Globe World Award for its initiation and development of the first European parabolic trough power plants, the Andasol projects in southern Spain. The prize-giving of this worldwide significant environment award will take place this evening in the form of a television gala in the European Parliament Building in Brussels. The Andasol projects have already been awarded with the national leading prize for Spain.

The Andasol projects are a group of three solar thermal power plants in Andalucía, southern Spain. The first project has been under construction since 2006 and will go into operation this year. The second will be connected to the grid next year and construction will commence on the third this year. Every single power plant will be capable of supplying environmentally-friendly solar electricity to up to 200,000 people. The plants are the first of their kind in Europe and are the biggest solar power plants in the world, each with over 510,000 square meters of collector surface.

In addition to being awarded the national prize for Spain, Solar Millennium's Andasol projects are one of three candidates from among over 800 entrants in the €10,000 "Fire" category of the Energy Globe World Award. The prize is awarded to innovative, environmentally-friendly energy generation projects. The Energy Globe World Awards ceremony will take place today at 8 pm in the Plenary Hall of the European Parliament in Brussels, in the form of an internationally broadcast television gala.

Solar Millennium's chairman of the board Mr. Christian Beltle is delighted with the nomination: "I am very pleased that we have been able to convince the top-class jury of the international significance of our projects. With the Andasol power plants we have done pioneering work and achieved the break-through in the market for parabolic trough technology. With these projects, we have managed to draw attention to this important environmental technology of the future. The commissioning of the Spanish power plants sends out a signal to the world for developing the solar thermal energy generation market."

The former UNO General Secretary Kofi Annan, one of several high-ranking personalities who will present the awards, considers the Energy Globe Awards to be an ideal platform to present innovative solutions to sustainable development to the world's public: "The Energy Globe Awards prove that clean and modern energy forms which promote sustainable development and reduce environmental damage already exist. I congratulate all prize-winners on their commitment in this matter and for their contributions with which they support the work of the United Nations Organization!"

About the Energy Globe Award
The worldwide significant and renowned environment prize was founded in 1999 as the "World Energy Globe Award for Sustainability". Since then, international projects which spare resources and/or use renewable energy sources have been awarded. The goal of the Energy Globe Awards is to present successful projects to a broad public. Around 800 projects and initiatives enter the competition every year, which are awarded in the categories of Earth, Fire (electricity), Water, Air and Youth.

The Energy Globe Awards prize-giving ceremony takes place every year in the form of a worldwide broadcast television gala. To date, the gala has taken place in Japan, Canada and in the Plenary Hall of the European Parliament Building in Brussels, where it will also be hosted this year. Among the prominent speakers are Mikhail Gorbachev, José Manuel Barroso, Kofi Annan and Dionne Warwick, who will also perform as part of the show. The artists Zucchero and Alanis Morissette will also perform on stage. The event will be presented by Désirée Nosbusch.

About the Andasol projects
Solar Millennium initiated the Spanish parabolic trough power plants Andasol 1 to 3 and has completed the project development successfully. Andasol 1 has been in construction since 2006 and will be connected to the grid this year. The sister projects will go into operation in 2009 and 2010, respectively. With the Andasol power plants, solar thermal energy generation will be realized for the first time in Europe on a large-scale power plant level. The projects set an example in several ways. By using thermal tanks, the power plants are able to make electricity available in a planned way - also at night - almost doubling the operating hours compared to solar power plants without tanks, thereby creating new opportunities for solar electricity generation. With the Andasol projects, the largest worldwide location for the use of solar energy is also at hand. Each of the 50 Megawatt power plants has a collector area of 512,000 square meters and provides up to 200,000 people with solar energy. In summer, the Andasol power plants will also help to meet peaks in demand in the Spanish power grid that are caused primarily by the high energy consumption of air conditioning units.

You can download the press release here.