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SolarTAC to Accelerate Solar Technology Development

Public-Private Sector Entities to Accelerate Commercialization with Nation's Largest Solar Test Site

(Aurora, Colorado) October 9, 2008 - Six public and private sector entities, all with a keen interest in advancing and accelerating the commercialization of solar technology, have joined forces and signed an agreement to develop one of the world's largest solar test and evaluation facilities. Leveraging the exceptional solar resources already in existence in Colorado, the development site, Solar Technology Acceleration Center (SolarTAC), will be located in Aurora, Colo.

The entities involved in SolarTAC include: Abengoa Solar, the City of Aurora, the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory, Midwest Research Institute (MRI), SunEdison and Xcel Energy.

"We are pleased that conceptual discussions we initiated several years ago have now become reality with the tremendous help of all our SolarTAC partners," said Dick Kelly, chairman, president and CEO, Xcel Energy. "SolarTAC will help bring advanced, more efficient and lower cost solar technologies to market and advance our vision of a clean energy future for our customers and local communities."

SolarTAC will provide a solar facility where member companies can bring their technologies for testing and demonstration, particularly solar technologies at the early commercial or near-commercial stage of development. SolarTAC will also help promote better interface between technology developers and solar energy users by offering solar equipment suppliers an opportunity to show potential customers new technologies performing under actual field conditions. MRI will serve as the management and operating contractor for SolarTAC.

"Site design, engineering, and permitting for the new 74-acre SolarTAC site in Aurora has begun," said James L. Spigarelli, president and CEO of MRI. "As renewable energy continues to play an ever increasing role in solving the world's energy challenges, large-scale test facilities will play a significant role in helping companies test the readiness of new solar technologies for deployment in the marketplace. We are very pleased that Abengoa Solar, SunEdison and Xcel Energy have signed on as founding member companies of the first shared solar technology center of its kind in North America."

Spigarelli added, "Aurora Mayor Ed Tauer and his economic development team are also to be commended for their diligent efforts in making this land available for our new not-for-profit business concept in solar test facilities."

"SolarTAC will be the best site in the country for the proving of new technology. This campus is targeted at directly boosting the members' bottom line," said Mayor Tauer. "We believe that other companies will also see the advantages they can gain by working with the SolarTAC members on this site."

In addition to the three founding member companies, MRI, who is one of two entities in the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, that manages the U. S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo., plans to recruit about a dozen other companies to participate as founding members in SolarTAC.

"Our objective is to provide a highly flexible, real world test situation with dedicated, custom test sites for leading-edge companies," said Mike Pacheco, MRI vice president and acting executive director for SolarTAC. "We look forward to building a base of companies that have synergies with each other and will collaborate to test, validate, and demonstrate new technologies and fully integrated commercial-ready systems leading to deployment into the marketplace more efficiently and effectively."

The SolarTAC business concept allows members to sponsor a wide range of research projects, from research that is completely proprietary to research that is shared between members to research that is available to the public. SolarTAC will also be open to research sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and by national labs like the National Renewable Energy Laboratory located in Golden.

The members of SolarTAC have all agreed to partner with the State of Colorado and the four major research institutions that make up the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory - Colorado State University, Colorado School of Mines, University of Colorado - Boulder (CU), and NREL. As part of the partnership, the Collaboratory institutions will be invited to participate in planning SolarTAC activities and respond to Requests for Research Proposals. Colorado's universities and NREL will be engaged to complement the applied testing and demonstration work in Aurora with more fundamental scientific research at each of the four institutions. "This is just one more important step forward in positioning Colorado as a world leader in renewable energy technology development," said David Hiller, executive director of the Collaboratory.

In the initial phase, SolarTac's 74-acre site, scheduled to be developed over the next three years, will include common areas to be used for performance validation testing of new solar energy system components for which the costs and results will be shared by all SolarTAC companies, as well as custom-made, company-specific test sites for proprietary testing by member companies. Abengoa Solar will have one of the first buildings erected on the site, an assembly building, and will begin actual equipment testing on proprietary components for their Concentrated Solar Power system components within a few months.

SunEdison will begin developing a portion of the site for testing new photovoltaic system components early next year, and Xcel Energy will be permanently locating the Award Winning CU Solar Decathlon exhibit to the site to serve as a visitors' center and solar exhibit. This zero-energy structure was designed and constructed by students at CU-Boulder in 2007. MRI will manage the engineering design and construction effort for the site and its facilities and has hired Burns & McDonnell, an international engineering and architecture firm based in Kansas City, to develop site plans and designs, and ICM-Pueblo, a construction management firm in Pueblo, Colo., to manage construction of the site.

About Abengoa Solar

Abengoa Solar (www.abengoasolar.com) develops and deploys technologies to generate clean energy from the sun. Abengoa Solar develops, designs, builds and operates in the U.S. Concentrating Solar Power (C.S.P.) and photovoltaic power plants and installations. Abengoa Solar also develops its own technology through R&D projects in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy and NREL, among others.

Abengoa Solar Media Relations Contact: Peter L. Keley, (202) 270-8831, peter@renewcomm.com

About Sun Edison

SunEdison LLC is North America's largest solar energy services provider and operates across a global marketplace. SunEdison provides solar-generated energy at or below current retail utility rates to a broad and diverse client base of commercial, municipal and utility customers. For more information about SunEdison, please visit www.sunedison.com.

SunEdison Media Relations Contact: Loretta Prencipe, (443) 909-7200 ext. 1808, LPrencipe@sunedison.com

About Xcel Energy

Xcel Energy (NYSE: XEL) is a major U.S. electricity and natural gas company with regulated operations in eight Western and Midwestern states. Xcel Energy provides a comprehensive portfolio of energy-related products and services to 3.3 million electricity customers and 1.8 million natural gas customers through its regulated operating companies. Company headquarters are located in Minneapolis. More information is available at www.xcelenergy.com.

Xcel Energy Media Relations Contact: (303) 294-2300

About Midwest Research Institute

MRI, a not-for-profit scientific research organization with 1,800 employees nationwide, performs contract research and laboratory consulting services for clients in government, industry, and academia. Established in 1944, MRI is one of the nation's leading independent research institutes conducting research in the areas of national security and defense, energy and environment, life sciences, food and agriculture, and transportation safety. With headquarters in Kansas City, MRI also has facilities in Palm Bay, Fla., Frederick, Md., and Rockville, Md. MRI is one of the two entities in the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, that manages the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo., for the U.S. Department of Energy. For more information, visit www.mriresearch.org.

MRI Media Relations Contact: Pamela Sharitz-Tesch, (816) 360-1968, psharitz-tesch@mriresearch.org

About Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory

The Collaboratory is a renewable energy research partnership among the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Colorado's premier research universities - Colorado School of Mines, Colorado State University and the University of Colorado - Boulder. The Collaboratory seeks to develop and commercialize renewable energy technologies, promote economic growth in Colorado, the Rocky Mountain Region and the nation with renewable energy industries, and educate our nations' finest energy researchers, technicians and work force. The Collaboratory's research centers provide access to four world class institutions through a single point of contact. Nearly 50 companies, from Fortune 500 companies to clean energy startups, have already joined Collaboratory centers. More information is available at www.coloradocollaboratory.org.

Collaboratory Media Relations Contact: David Hiller, (303) 376-2631, David.Hiller@ColoradoCollaboratory.org

City of Aurora Media Relations Contact:

Lori MacKenzie, (303) 739-7569

(Please note: A concept drawing of the SolarTAC site is available upon request; please contact Pamela Sharitz-Tesch at MRI.)