Portuguese Joint Venture Awarded NER300 Funding for Phase 2 Buildout of WindFloat Wind Farm

Seattle, WA (USA), December 21, 2012 – Principle Power, Inc. (Principle Power) would like to congratulate Windplus S.A. (Windplus) in the recently successful bid for European Commission project funding. The scheme, called NER300, provides funding for Carbon Capture Storage (CCS) and innovative renewable energy technology demonstration projects. Windplus is a Portuguese joint venture consisting of Energias de Portugal, Repsol, Principle Power, A. Silva Matos, and Portugal Ventures.

The Windplus bid sought funding for the second phase of a three-phase commercial floating offshore wind farm in Portugal. The second phase aims to build upon learnings from the first phase (a 2MW WindFloat prototype unit currently in operation) and prove the commercial efficacy of the WindFloat technology. Total capacity for the second (pre-commercial) phase of the project is planned to be approximately 27MW or greater, employing next-generation multi-megawatt offshore wind turbines. A third (commercial phase) is planned to follow and build out the wind farm capacity up to 150MW.

The NER300 scheme required Portuguese member state support as well as success in an EC-wide competition among member states' proposals. The WindFloat project is one of 23 projects awarded funding by the EC under the NER300 scheme. The successful bid provides nearly €30M in the form of a feed-in-tariff to offset the cost of this innovative renewable energy project.