Solar Millennium AG Receives USD 2.1 Billion Loan Guarantee with Borrowed Capital from US Federal Financing Bank for Solar-Thermal Power Plant Project Blythe in California

Solar Millennium AG announced that the US Secretary of Energy, Dr. Steven Chu, offered the Blythe solar power plant project company a conditional commitment for a USD 2.1 billion loan guarantee. The loan guarantees are the precondition for financing some 75% of construction costs of the first two 242 megawatt (MW) power plants with borrowed capital from the US Federal Financing Bank. Solar Trust of America LLC, the American company unit within the Solar Millennium Group, already began construction of the parabolic trough power plants Blythe 1 and 2 at the end of 2010. The total investment sum for the first two solar-thermal power plants projected in Blythe amounts to roughly USD 2.8 billion. The conditional commitment defines the covenants to be met by the applicant in order to receive the loan guarantees by the US Department of Energy (DOE). Among other conditions, this also includes the conclusion of a respective general contractor agreement and securing the equity share in total investment. The Executive Board of Solar Millennium assumes that the Company will manage to meet all of these conditions by late summer 2011. According to the eligibility guidelines, the conditional commitment is offered to companies which, after intensive scrutiny by the DOE, are believed to be able to meet the contractual provisions. The electricity generated in Blythe 1 and 2 will be purchased by the US utility Southern California Edison (SCE).