TOLOSA, Spain and INVERNESS, Scotland, July 2 /PRNewswire/ --     The world-wide first commercial breakwater wave energy plant will be
built at the Spanish Atlantic coast. It is based on Voith Siemens Hydro Power
Generation's wave technology. Customer is the Basque Energy Board, Ente Vasco
de Energia. The new plant in Mutriku in Northern Spain will work with the
Oscillating Water Column (OWC) technology of Voith Siemens Hydro's Scottish
subsidiary Wavegen where it is successfully field-tested for seven years now.
The pioneer in wave power operates the first long-term grid connected wave
energy plant.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070702/263513 )

"Mutriku is a milestone in the history of wave energy. We are proud that
the first breakwater wave energy plant will rely on Wavegen's technology",
says Dr. Hubert Lienhard, President and CEO of Voith Siemens Hydro. The new
project will see the integration of 16 Wells turbines into Mutriku's new
breakwater being constructed by the local government. Supplying green
electricity to around 250 households with a rated power of nearly 300 kW, the
plant will be commissioned in the winter of 2008/2009.

Starting signal for green energy from waves

With this innovative power plant concept the production of green energy
will be integrated into a marine construction with minimized additional
construction costs.

"This project represents a major step towards commercialization of wave
power as we continue to develop the technology and demonstrate its
reliability under commercial operating conditions", says David Gibb, General
Manager of Wavegen: "And we already negotiate further projects in other
countries."

How to turn waves into watts

The wave plant will use the Oscillating Water Column principle which has
been utilized in Wavegen's demonstration plant in Scotland since 2000. An
opening in the front of the breakwater allows the sea to rise and fall within
a chamber due to the action of the waves. This motion compresses and
decompresses the enclosed volume of air. The energy generated from this
pressure differential is then - with the aid of a Wells turbine and a
generator - transformed into electricity and fed into the grid.

Voith Siemens Hydro Power Generation is a Group Division of Voith and -
with a workforce of around 2,500 employees and an order intake of around 720
million Euro in the past business year - Voith Siemens Hydro Power Generation
is one of the world-wide leading companies for hydro power equipment.

Voith Group is setting standards in the markets paper, energy, mobility
and service. Founded on 1 January 1867, and nowadays with approximately
34,000 employees, a turnover of 3.7 billion Euro and 250 locations worldwide,
Voith is one of Europe's large family-owned companies.

Picture is available via EPA (European Pressphoto Agency) and can be
downloaded free of charge at:
http://www.presseportal.de/pm/50723/voith_ag/?keygroup=bild

Note to Editors:

A picture accompanying this release is available on AP Archive:
http://photoarchive.ap.org PRN6

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