News

E.ON acquires wind farms in North America
 
E.ON is continuing to expand its renewables business and is acquiring the North American activities of Irish wind farm operator Airtricity for $1.4 billion. This takeover marks the first time E.ON has attained a strong renewables market position with considerable growth potential outside of Europe. The purchase price is subject to closing adjustments and includes $553 million net debt and shareholder loans.
 
Airtricity is currently operating wind farms with around 210 MW installed capacity. Additional 880 MW are going to be operational by the end of 2008. Wind farms already operational or under construction are situated in extremely favorable locations in the US states of Texas and New York and boast superb load factors. More than 1,000 MW of additional projects are in an advanced development stage. These projects are going to require an investment volume of around $3.5 billion until 2011. Other projects across US and Canada totaling more than 5,000 MW are in an early development stage.
 
Lutz Feldmann, responsible for renewables on the E.ON board: “The acquisition of Airtricity in North America marks our entry into the world’s most attractive renewables market. It is a further step towards establishing a leading international position in the renewables business. The large number of Airtricity projects is also offering additional growth potential. Only weeks after buying Energi E2 Renovables Ibéricas in Spain and Portugal, our efforts to expand our renewables activities are progressing swiftly with this acquisition. Continuity is our prime concern for the integration of Airtricity North America into the E.ON Group, which is why we will continue to rely on the company’s management under the leadership of the CEO Declan Flanagan.”
 
By acquiring Airtricity North America E.ON is increasing its worldwide installed wind power capacity from around 640 MW to 850 MW, making it one of the largest wind farm operators worldwide. The total capacity of the wind power projects being developed is increasing from 2.6 to 4.6 GW. With this acquisition, E.ON is diversifying its regional and technological wind power portfolio. The growing business volume also means that the Group can tap economies of scale, including in the purchase of wind turbines.
 
The transaction is subject to certain approvals (e.g. regulatory) in the US and is expected to close by the end of this year
 
The US wind energy market is one of the most attractive worldwide. According to Ernst & Young’s “Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Indices”, it scores 72, which is the highest score, followed by India, Spain and the UK, which score 64 each. Given the extension of government funding and the introduction of renewables guidelines at state level, the US wind energy market is going to be generating growth rates in excess of 10 percent annually expected over the next ten years.

About EC&R
E.ON Climate & Renewables (EC&R) is responsible for activities of the E.ON group in renewable energy sources and environmental protection around the world. Tapping renewable energy sources offers enormous alternatives, both from a business perspective and for the environment. E.ON Climate & Renewables will invest over €6 billion in renewable energy and environmental protection projects by 2010 to expand the share of renewable energy sources in the E.ON portfolio for the long term. E.ON has thus taken a leading role in developing renewable energy sources worldwide. For more information, see www.eon.com.

This press release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by E.ON Group management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in our public reports filed with the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (including our Annual Report on Form 20-F, in particular to the discussion included in the sections entitled "Item 3. Key Information: Risk Factors", "Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects", "Item 11. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk"). The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.