ESBI secures new power plant site in Northern Spain

Esb international (ESBI) has secured a site for Power Plant Development in the DuPont industrial complex near Avilés, Asturias, in Northwest Spain (500km North West of Madrid). The announcement was made on January 18th 2006

Following this agreement, ESBI will now begin the permitting and environmental impact assessment process for an 800MW combined cycle gas turbine plant. This will involve comprehensive consultation with the Madrid government, regional and local authorities, as well as the local community. This process is expected to take up to two and half years to complete and will allow construction of the plant to start in 2008.

Michael McNicholas, Executive Director, ESBI said: "ESBI intends to develop a stateof- the-art natural gas CCGT plant on this site. This technology will deliver competitively priced environmentally friendly power to the Spanish market."

He added that "the project follows on from ESBI's successful completion of a similar type CCGT plant in Amorebieta near Bilbao, which was the first independent power plant in Spain. This facility has been in commercial operation since August 2005. We see this new project in Tamon in Asturias as another excellent growth opportunity, which allows ESBI to further invest in this large and important market".

In addition to the recently commissioned plant in Amorebieta (near Bilbao), ESBI's development and investment division has been involved in the construction of a number of power plants, including a gasfired power station in Corby, England, Coolkeeragh in Northern Ireland and Rousch in Pakistan

ESBI currently has operations and projects in over 35 countries, including Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Since the company's establishment 27 years ago, ESBI has completed projects in over 115 countries.