Renewable Energy Generation Ltd
11 April 2008
Press Release
11 April 2008
Renewable Energy Generation Limited
("REG" or the "Group" or the "Company")
AGM Statement
Speaking today in Guernsey at the 1030hrs Annual General Meeting of Renewable
Energy Generation Limited, the international renewable energy group, Michael
Liston, OBE, Chairman of the Group, will make the following comments about
current trading and the Company's trading outlook:
"With progress in project development and construction remaining in line with
the Board's expectations, I am pleased to report that REG continues to perform
well in its core, wind markets in the UK and Canada and has rapidly positioned
itself to exploit early mover advantage in the highly promising
power-from-used-cooking- oil market in the UK.
"Our UK wind development pipeline now totals over 200MW and is operating under a
Power Purchase Agreement with Smartest Energy Ltd. Today, we have 17.7MW of
operating wind power in the UK compared with 5.6MW prior to 2007. The volume of
our development stage wind projects having entered the local planning process
has increased to eight, totalling over 40MW and a further eight projects across
the UK are in the planning preparation stage. It is hoped that planning
decisions will be made on a number of these sites over the coming months.
"We successfully completed the construction of four new projects in the UK
during 2007 totalling 12.1.MW. Among these was Roskrow Barton, our second site
in Cornwall - a two turbine site which was completed in just four months. We
now have a confirmed turbine delivery date for our two 1.8MW projects at
Whittlesey and Ramsey in Cambridgeshire which will be completed during the
summer. We were delighted to receive planning permission recently from the
local planning authority for our 3.9MW project at Loscar, Rotherham. This is a
very satisfying result after an intensive period of close consultation and
detailed development work with the authority. Turbine procurement is already
well advanced, and we will place orders as soon as the statutory review period
by the Department for Communities & Local Government is completed.
"Development of the Group's Used Cooking Oil ("UCO") business continues to
exceed our expectations. In the past six months, REG Bio-Power has placed
orders for twenty-two generating units using Volvo engines, of which most have
already been delivered. Twelve units have been purchased for the 6MW Bentwaters
site, in Suffolk, where performance testing has now been completed and full
commercial operation is expected in the next few weeks. The value of the
electricity from Bentwaters is higher than budgeted, and with ROCs and LECs, the
project will enjoy all-up value of well over £100 per MWh. Further projects are
planned for installation over the next six months.
"Although an economically viable supply of imported vegetable oils is readily
accessible, we have sought, with early success, long-term UCO fuel supply
contracts with leading UK corporates and local authorities. We recently secured
supply agreements initially for up to 2015 with Norfolk, Suffolk and
Cambridgeshire County Councils and more counties are planned. Our distributed
collection activities in the South East have enjoyed the support of Anglian
Water and we are engaging with the Environment Agency to establish the full
future potential for exploitation of the market for used cooking oil.
"In Canada, our wholly owned subsidiary AIM PowerGen Corporation (APG),
continues to make progress in converting its substantial development pipeline
into operating wind projects. Construction of the first four 10MW "Standard
Offer Projects" (SOPs) in Ontario has recently been completed and they will
gradually enter commercial service over the next three months. An additional
three projects, representing 30MW of additional capacity for which turbines have
already been ordered from Vestas, are set to go to construction this autumn and
should be online by early 2009. We are planning to build a further 15 SOP
projects representing 150MW during 2009 and 2010 and we have already constructed
more projects under the SOP program than any other developer in Ontario.
"With respect to larger scale projects, APG recently received notice that the
Manitoba Hydro utility will be focussing discussions for the time being with one
of the other short-listed bidders in the 300MW RFP. However, the utility has
advised APG it may re-engage with them at a later date on its Dominion City
project. As such, this project and another APG 100MW project in Manitoba are on
hold until further word from the utility on the current RFP and the plan to
procure the balance of the 1000MW target the provincial government had set. The
Ontario RFP for 500MW of renewable power is expected to be issued in the next
four weeks and the Group intends to bid approximately 300MW into this process in
conjunction with an equity partner. Winning bidders should be announced this
autumn. Other RFPs are expected in the next 12 months in Newfoundland and
Saskatchewan, where APG has larger sites under development.
"The Group's development achievements in the past year provide a strong
foundation for performance in 2008. Having achieved positive cash flow and,
with a track record of completing projects on time and on budget and a strong
development pipeline, we look forward with confidence to the future."
Contacts:
Renewable Energy Generation Ltd Tel: 01483 400 444
Andrew Whalley, Chief Executive Officer
David Crockford , Finance Director
Numis Securities Ltd Tel: 020 7260 1000
Charles Farquhar / Anthony Richardson / Jag Mundi
Hogarth Partnership Ltd Tel: 020 7357 9477
Sarah MacLeod
Julian Walker
Vicky Watkins
Notes to Editors
Renewable Energy Generation Ltd (REG) is a world-leading renewable energy group.
The Group's main business is the development, ownership and operation of wind
farms in the UK and Canada. It also generates power from refined used cooking
oil in the UK.
The Cornwall Light & Power Co. Ltd: based in Cornwall, UK, it currently
operates five wind projects in Cornwall, County Durham, Cumbria and
Gwynedd, with a total capacity of 17.7MW and has a development pipeline of
around 200MW.
AIM PowerGen Corporation: based in Toronto, Canada, AIM PowerGen
Corporation is one of Canada's largest independent wind developers and has
a pipeline of over 4,000MW of potential wind projects across seven
provinces.
REG Bio-Power UK Ltd: based in Norfolk, UK, it operates electricity
generation plant fuelled by refined used cooking oil.
Headquartered in Guernsey, REG was admitted to trading on the Alternative
Investment Market ("AIM"), a market operated by the London Stock Exchange in
May 2005 (AIM: RWE).
www.renewableenergygeneration.co.uk
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange