TuuliWatti Oy to begin wind power production at Tahkoluoto in Pori

PRESS RELEASE JANUARY 11, 2010

TuuliWatti Oy to begin wind power production at Tahkoluoto in Pori

Established in spring 2009 as a joint venture by energy company St1 and SOK, wind power company TuuliWatti Oy is set to begin the production of wind power at Tahkoluoto in Pori. With an output of three megawatts, the large power station delivered by WinWinD will form the first part of TuuliWatti’s wind park project in Tahkoluoto.

Industrial wind power is a sector of clean energy with a great deal of potential in Finland.

– TuuliWatti focuses on building wind parks on land. This enables us to minimise line loss and grid investments, says the newly-appointed Managing Director of TuuliWatti Oy, St1’s Renewable Energy Director Jari Suominen.

In the next few years the company is aiming at building significant wind power capacity across Finland.

- TuuliWatti allows us to reach a significant volume in the construction and operation of industrial wind power, which will have an impact on the cost-efficiency of operations, Jari Suominen says.

– With more than 1,600 places of business, the S Group is among the top ten electricity consumers in Finland. In addition to achieving maximal energy-efficiency in our operations, our objectives include significantly increasing the amount of electricity produced through renewable energy forms. TuuliWatti provides us with a great opportunity for achieving this, says Jari Annala, CFO of SOK.

The wind park projects of TuuliWatti Oy were launched last year with project development and wind measurement concerning five sites. This year the number of sites under development will grow to eight, the first of which will be taken under construction in 2011.

Begun before the establishment of TuuliWatti, the power plant project in Pori was completed by St1 in the autumn. With electricity production now set to begin, the plant was transferred under the ownership of TuuliWatti. Operated by TuuliWatti, the Tahkoluoto production plant is the highest wind power plant built in Finland to date, producing around 8,000 MWh of renewable wind power per year.

– The experiences from the commissioning at Tahkoluoto this autumn are extremely promising. In November we already reached an excellent 43 per cent utilisation rate, which means 930 MWh of clean wind power per month. With production at the power plant reaching full swing, we also expect to hit high production figures going forward, Jari Suominen says.

The Pori region is an excellent example of how an existing infrastructure, such as the Tahkoluoto harbour area, can provide a suitable site for industrial wind power production. In this way Pori has created one of the best land-based industrial wind power production areas in Finland.

TuuliWatti Oy is a new type of player in the Finnish energy market. Wind power projects are typically lengthy, and the need for resources depends largely on the progress of permit issues. TuuliWatti’s operations are built on a cost-efficient model where the input of the part-owners can be flexibly targeted to projects as necessary. The company’s administration is comprised of representatives of both part-owners. Jari Suominen was appointed as the Managing Director of TuuliWatti Oy on 11 January 2010. Suominen also acts as the Director of St1’s Renewable Energy.

For further information, please contact:

TuuliWatti Oy, Managing Director Jari Suominen, tel. +358 50 595 6780, e-mail: jari.suominen(at)tuuliwatti.fi

SOK, CFO Jari Annala, tel. +358 10 76 82040, e-mail: jari.annala(at)sok.fi

www.tuuliwatti.fi