Solar Millennium plans cash capital increase to promote growth

• Eight-figure proceeds planned
• Participation in above-average solar thermal power plant market growth
• Significant turnover increase planned for the current fiscal year
   

Erlangen, 14.02.2008. Solar Millennium AG (ISIN DE0007218406) is planning a capital increase from authorized capital with pre-emptive rights in the near future. The intention is to produce an eight-figure sum to be used for the financing of the strong growth within the scope of the current business model.

The board of directors intends to use the revenue to finance the expansion of business activity in existing markets and to promote internationalization through entry into new markets. The development of projects in southern Europe, the USA, China, Australia, and the North African and Middle East regions is therefore to be intensified over the next few years. Solar Millennium also intends to utilize the capital increase to consolidate and expand its market leadership in the field of parabolic trough technology. Investments in research and development are intended to reduce the costs of solar thermal power generation by considerably.

The planned capital increase sees Solar Millennium issuing new shares via the stock market for the first time. The IPO on the Munich and Frankfurt stock exchange open markets as well as Xetra trading took place in July 2005 without the parallel issue of new shares. Solar Millennium has since seen strong growth and has been able to increase group turnover by about 75% in the last fiscal year (2006/2007) alone, based on the preliminary figures. The company is planning an even greater increase in turnover for the current 2007/2008 fiscal year.

Chairman of the Board, Christian Beltle, sees enormous potential for the company: "The commissioning of Europe's first parabolic trough power plant this summer is a clear signal for the market and an important reference for Solar Millennium. In future, solar thermal power plants will be the most significant of all forms of renewable energy in the earth's sunny regions. With the capital increase we are creating the requisite equity capital basis in order to be able to play a decisive role in the above-average market growth for solar thermal electricity generation in the future as well."

About Solar Millennium AG:
Solar Millennium AG, Erlangen, is a globally active company in the renewable energy sector, with its main focus on solar thermal power plants. Together with its subsidiaries, Solar Millennium specializes in parabolic trough power plants - a reliable, proven technology in which the company is a worldwide leader. The company covers all major business sectors of the value-added chain for solar thermal power plants, from project development to technology and turn-key construction of power plants, to the operation and ownership of power plants. In Spain, Solar Millennium developed Europe's first ever parabolic trough power plants, two of which are already under construction. Further projects are planned with a capacity of several hundred Megawatts located worldwide, with the focus upon Spain, the USA, China and North Africa. The company is also developing solar chimney power plants, with the aim of making this technology ready for the market.

About the technology:
Solar thermal power plants generate electricity using heat energy captured from solar radiation. In a parabolic trough power plant, trough-shaped mirrors concentrate the sun’s rays onto a pipe in the focal line of the collector. Their absorption heats a transfer fluid in the pipe, generating steam in the power block by way of heat exchange. As with conventional power plants, the steam is utilized in a turbine to generate power, and by integrating thermal storage, this power can be supplied on demand. Thus, solar power plants can also generate electricity after sunset.

You can download the press release here.