Essent enters into long-term green contract with Electrawinds

Geneva, 20 March 2008 - In the next fifteen years (2009-2024) Essent Trading will purchase 1.8 TWh of Green Electricity from Electrawinds N.V. This is sufficient to supply well over 600,000 households with green electricity (Essent Green) during that time. The electricity will come from Electrawinds' biosteam plant in Ostend, which is currently being built and is expected to be ready by 2009.

As well as electricity, Essent will obtain Flemish green electricity certificates from the biosteam plant during the period 2009 to 2019.

From mid 2009 Essent will buy all the electricity produced by the West-Flemish biosteam power plant, as sole energy supplier, for a period of 15 years. Electrawinds invited tenders for this and chose Essent.

Building has recently begun on Electrawinds' biosteam power plant in Ostend. The fuel to be used to generate the renewable energy is (solid) biomass waste. At the power plant these high-calory residual fractions are burnt in a roasting furnace to produce steam. The heat resulting from the burning of biomass waste converts the water into steam, which then drives the steam turbine. This steam turbine causes a generator to rotate, which then in turn generates electricity.

The biosteam power plant can burn up to 180,000 tonnes of biomass waste a year. With this the power plant produces 133,920 MWel per year, which on average supplies almost 42,000 families with green energy. Over a period of 15 years this corresponds to more than 600,000 households consuming well over 1.8 TWh of green electricity.

About Electrawinds
Electrawinds is the biggest private player in the renewable energy sector in Belgium and was founded in 1998. The company originally concentrated on the production of wind energy. Later it also invested in the development of other forms of renewable energy, such as biomass and solar energy.

About Essent Trading
Essent Trading, located in Geneva, Switzerland is a prestigious asset backed merchant trading business with its roots in the Netherlands. Essent Trading is recognized as a market leader in Energy trading in Continental Europe and voted as a top tier trading house by Risk Magazine since 2004. The parent company of Essent Trading, Essent N.V., is the largest energy company in the Netherlands with approximately 10,000 employees, more than 5000 MWs of diverse generation portfolio and over 2.7 million customers across the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Essent is ranked among Europe's leading companies in Renewable and Sustainable energy generation.