Client News-MGT POWER SHARES POWER STATION PLANS WITH NORTH EAST BUSINESSES AT THE RIVERSIDE STADIUM

MGT POWER SHARES POWER STATION PLANS WITH NORTH EAST BUSINESSES AT THE RIVERSIDE STADIUM

Date: November 12th 2009

MGT Power, the developers of the £500m Tees Renewable Energy Plant, located at Teesport, today briefed more than 120 people from more than 50 North East companies on the business opportunities that will become available as the scheme is built and then enters commercial operation. The presentation, organised and hosted by the Energy Industries Council (EIC), was held earlier today at Middlesbrough FC’s Riverside Stadium. It was the largest ever meeting of its kind hosted by the EIC’s Northern office.

MGT Power, which is also seeking to develop a similar sized biomass power plant at the Port of Tyne, outlined the current status of the Tees and Tyne projects, and spoke about the range of goods and services that will be required to build and operate the two plants and the procurement process that will be adopted. The audience received presentations from Chris Moore, a director of MGT Power Ltd and Julian Scutter, Head of Renewable Energy at Pöyry Energy, the engineering consultants to the Tees Renewable Energy Plant.

Chris Moore said: “We were delighted with the level of interest and enthusiasm shown in our power projects at Teesport and the Port of Tyne. It underlines the significant economic contribution that both projects can bring to the North East. At Teesside, we expect about 600 people to be employed during the three year construction period, 150 permanent jobs during the station’s lifetime, and once operating the plant will contribute about £30m per annum into the local economy. We are expecting our Tyne Renewable Energy Plant, which is still at an early stage in the planning and development process, to make a similar contribution. A number of Tyneside companies were present at today’s presentation.”

At 295MW capacity, the Tees Renewable Energy Plant will generate enough electricity to meet the needs of approximately 600,000 homes and will be one of the largest-ever biomass plants to be built in the world, and one of the largest of all renewable energy projects. MGT Power plan to start construction in the first half of next year and for the plant to enter commercial operation in 2012/13. The proposed Tyne Renewable Energy Plant is targeted to enter commercial operation in 2014/15, subject to planning and financing.

For further information please contact:

Paul Taylor/James Court (Taylor Keogh Communications) on 020 3170 8465

Notes to Editors:

2. 1. MGT Power (www.mgtpower.com) was established in December 2007 to develop biomass generation projects in the UK and Europe. The management team includes Chris Moore, Ben Elsworth, Thiago Azevedo and Noel Forrest who have backgrounds in UK power generation and the supply of renewable energy feedstocks.



3. 2. The Tees site is about 6kms east of Middlesbrough and 5kms west of Redcar. It is situated on land adjacent to the main southern dock at Teesport on the south bank of the River Tees. It has a number of advantages: available industrial zone land, suitable dockside acreage in a deep water port, good access to the National Grid and associated electrical infrastructure, excellent highly skilled local industrial workforce and contracting base, and excellent road links.



4. 3. In October 2009, MGT Power announced an agreement with Tesco to supply power to Tesco’s import warehouse at Teesport directly from the Tees Renewable Energy Plant. The Tesco warehouse is adjacent to the Tees REP on PD Port’s Teesport estate.

Industry News-PRASEG Delivering the UK’s renewable energy targets

Delivering the UK’s renewable energy targets

Greater leadership on planning decisions for onshore wind farms from local councillors was one of the main points made at a seminar on Monday (November 2^nd) organised by the Parliamentary Renewable & Sustainable Energy Group.

The topic of the seminar was the delivery of the UK’s renewable energy targets and presentations were given by Sarah Rhodes, Acting Head of DECC’s Office of Renewable Energy Deployment, Maria McCaffery of the BWEA and Keith Anderson, Managing Director of Scottish Power Renewables.

Whilst the facts about current levels of renewable power generation were nothing new, nor the enormity of the challenge to reach the2020 targets, let alone the 2030 target, the speakers outlined the steps that are already being taken by government and what more must be done. Keith Anderson referenced the positive steps being taken in the US (tax credits) to encourage renewables, and the need to focus effort on delivering renewables now rather than spending too much time on the longer-term issues such as grid infrastructure (although these are important).

Maria McCaffery spoke of the need for government and the industry to blow away the myths about wind power often used by objectors across the UK, and to communicate the positive impact that wind farms bring to areas once they are up and running as well as the benefit to the UK economy.

Delivering 30% of the UK’s electricity from renewables sources by 2020 is the target, with the associated benefits of energy security and “green jobs”.….wind, biomass, tidal and wave will all have a part to play. We will have an idea of what the UK must do by 2050 when DECC publishes its Energy Vision in March 2010

Client News-MARINE CURRENT TURBINES REVEALS DETAILS OF SEAGEN’S GENERATING PERFORMANCE

For further information please contact:

Paul Taylor (Taylor Keogh Communications) on +44 (0)20 3170 8465 / +44 (0)7966 782611

MARINE CURRENT TURBINES REVEALS DETAILS OF SEAGEN’S GENERATING PERFORMANCE

Tuesday, November 3^rd 2009

Lisbon, Portugal: Speaking today at the Lisbon International Ocean Power Conference, Peter Fraenkel, Technical Director and co-founder of Marine Current Turbines, the Bristol company that designed and developed SeaGen, the world’s only commercial scale tidal stream turbine, told delegates that SeaGen is running at full power and fully automatically, exactly as planned.

Peter Fraenkel said: “We are delighted with SeaGen’s performance. It is running reliably and delivering more energy than originally expected in an extremely aggressive environment. It should be remembered it is being driven by a wall of water 27m deep, similar to the height of the Tower of London, that surges back and forth with every tide through the Strangford Narrows in Northern Ireland at speeds of up to 10 miles per hour. We are getting more energy than expected mainly because the resource is more energetic than originally predicted during earlier surveys.”

SeaGen has already delivered over 350MWh of power into the Northern Irish electricity grid. The twin generators typically produce an average of 5MWh of electricity during the 6¼ hours of each ebb and each flood tide. This is enough energy to meet the average electricity needs for 1500 UK homes.

The SeaGen turbine, with its twin 16m diameter rotors, is officially accredited by OFGEM as a “UK power station”, the first tidal power system to secure this. It is earning revenue from the sale of the power that is being generated and it also earns ROCs, the Renewable Obligation Certificates that are awarded for clean renewable generation.

Martin Wright, Managing Director of Marine Current Turbines, commented: “We are delighted to have moved on from the initial period of commissioning and testing to demonstrating that this is a practical method of generation that really does do exactly what it says on the label. It is a hugely significant milestone for the company to be selling electricity consistently and earning revenue.”

Although SeaGen has been operational for most of this year, it was not until September that consent was given to operate it without having to have environmental scientists (marine mammal observers) on board and onshore. This was an initial requirement under the licensing arrangements to ensure that SeaGen did not adversely affect the marine mammals that are a protected feature of the local waters and restricted SeaGen’s uninterrupted running. However extensive experience gained so far suggests the seals and porpoises are not at any significant risk and as a result SeaGen is now permitted to operate unattended and by remote control, as was originally intended.

For the time being. an operator onshore will continue to monitor a sonar image of the passing flow which can show up any seal that ventures too close to the rotors, and the operator has the facility to stop the machine. As confidence and the body of evidence grows, it is expected that full running will be permitted in the near future.

Martin Wright added: “Building on our experience in Strangford Lough, the team at MCT are working to deploy tidal turbine arrays in UK and overseas waters, and we are working on new scaled-up developments from SeaGen that promise to generate power at a lower cost. The expectation is that this radical new technology can be developed within five to ten years to make a significant contribution to our future energy needs. Given suitable market incentives, SeaGen demonstrates that marine renewable energy is at the cusp of forming the basis for a new UK industry with considerable world-wide export potential.”

Notes to Editors:

Marine Current Turbines Ltd (www.marineturbines.com) is based in Bristol, England. The company was established in 2000 and its principal corporate shareholders include BankInvest, ESB International, EDF Energy, Guernsey Electricity and Triodos Bank. In September 2009, MCT was ranked the world’s top tidal energy company in The Guardian/Clean Tech Global 100 survey, and in June 2009 won Renewable Energy Developer of the Year in the UK Renewable Energy Association Annual Awards.

For further information:

Marine Current Turbines

Martin Wright, Managing Director

Tel: +44 (0)117 979 1888 / +44 (0)7785 340671

or

Paul Taylor

Taylor Keogh Communications

T: +44 (0) 203 170 8465 / DDI: +44 (0)203 170 8466

M: +44 (0)7966 782611

E: paul@taylorkeogh.com

W: www.taylorkeogh.com