Development of New Solar Energy Projects in North America

GDF SUEZ, through its wholly-owned subsidiary International Power, announced today that construction of a solar project in Ontario, Canada, has commenced.

The Brockville project will have an installed capacity of 10MW, sufficient to serve nearly 1,700 homes. A 20-year Power Purchase Agreement has been secured with the Ontario Power Authority for all of the output.

The CAD$ 50 million (€40 million) project is to be developed under Ontario’s renewable subsidy program (Feed-in Tariff Program) and is expected to become operational in early 2013. The solar photovoltaic modules will be supplied by Suntech, the world’s largest producer of solar modules.

In addition, the Group has completed its first utility-scale solar project in the United States, a 2MW facility on the site of its Northfield Mountain pumped hydro storage plant in Massachusetts. The facility, which began producing power for the regional grid in late March, is one of the largest solar installations in New England, consisting of more than 18,000 photovoltaic panels.

In North America, the Group currently operates 27 renewable facilities powered by solar, wind, biomass and conventional hydro energy, with a total capacity of 667MW*. Two pumped storage hydro plants contribute a further 1,124MW* to the clean energy portfolio.

Solar energy currently accounts for 1% of GDF SUEZ’s global electric production capacity and the Group is increasing the contribution from this clean, renewable energy source. Since 2011, GDF SUEZ commissioned 37MW of photovoltaic solar capacity in France : the facilities in Bollène (4MW) and Beaucaire-Tarascon (3MW) developed by CN’AIR, the three facilities in Curbans (totaling 26MW) as well as the Porette de Nérone (3.8MW) facility developed in Corsica.

An exchange rate of €1: CAD1.254$ has been used in this announcement.

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