Meridian Energy to partner with AGL in developing

Southern Hemisphere’s largest

For immediate release:

New Zealand's largest renewable electricity generator, Meridian, and 's largest renewable electricity generator AGL today announced the establishment of a joint venture to build what will be the southern hemisphere's biggest wind farm.

The project is the 420 MW Macarthur wind farm in southwest Victoria. The final build cost will be around A$1 billion and is due for completion in 2013.

Meridian’s 50 percent investment share in the project will be made through a combination of equity and project finance which will be sourced by the joint venture partners.

Meridian chief executive Tim Lusk said today the investment was consistent with Meridian’s Australian wind investment strategy, which earlier this year saw the company acquire the 70 MW Mt Millar wind farm in South Australia.

“The Macarthur project is a great opportunity to facilitate our growth ambitions in Australia. The project offers long term, reliable generation revenues which will complement the rest of Meridian’s developing Australian wind portfolio. The electricity purchase contracts have been structured in a way that the joint venture does not take market price or electricity production volume risk.”

Mr Lusk said Macarthur cements a long term relationship between Meridian and AGL.

“This joint venture between the largest renewable developers in and Australia, each bringing complementary skill sets to the project, gives us great confidence that it will be delivered successfully. The good cultural fit evident between the parties creates ongoing opportunities for joint development.”

As well as the Macarthur project and the Mt Millar wind farm, Meridian has a number of other high quality wind development sites in Australia.

Mr Lusk said recent changes to the Australia’s Renewable Energy Target legislation - obliging retailers to obtain a fixed proportion of their overall energy sales from renewables, - gave Meridian and AGL added confidence in the commercial viability of the project.

“Wind generation currently has a substantial cost advantage over other grid scale renewable technologies that can be practically deployed in Australia. Meridian expects wind farms will make a substantial contribution to Australian retailers meeting their renewable energy targets.” Mr Lusk said that Meridian is looking forward to working with on this project.

“The low cost of energy and the higher installed MW with fewer turbines were the attractive propositions of the Vestas V112-3.0 MW turbine. To ensure that the V112-3.0 MW platform is the right solution for the Macarthur project, we did extensive due diligence through site visits and technical meetings. We have built a strong relationship with Vestas over the years in NZ and committing ourselves to this product shows our faith in Vestas to deliver our priorities.”

AGL CEO and Managing Director Michael Fraser says the project is an exciting development that will significantly contribute to the delivery of Australia’s 2020 expanded renewable energy target.

“The recent passage of the RET legislation through Federal parliament has provided investment certainty for Macarthur and other renewable projects. Together with Meridian and our contractors we will continue to work with the local community to deliver clean renewable energy that has the capacity to power 220,000 Australian homes,” he said.

The Premier of Victoria, John Brumby, has welcomed the announcement saying: “This Government is committed to tackling climate change, and the Macarthur Wind Farm will contribute to making a real difference to the environment, not only for Victorians, but for all Australians.”

As part of the development AGL will establish a Macarthur Wind Farm Community Fund which will operate from commencement of construction and for the life of the wind farm. Leases with the landowners are for 25 years with a 25 year right to extend at AGL/Meridian’s option.

For more information contact:

Claire Shaw External Communications Manager 021 370 677 [email protected]

Tony Nagy Cosway Australia Pty Limited Ph: + 612 9929 8344 Fx: + 612 9957 4564 Mobile: + 61 4 1364 5126 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.coswayaustralia.com.au

KEY FACTS:

About Macarthur wind farm

Location: 230km west of Melbourne Total construction cost: $984m (wind farm); $27m (substation) Contractors: Vestas/Leighton Contractors Turbines: 140 x 3.0 MW V112 Capacity: 420 MW Average wind speed: 7.6 m/s : 35% Construction schedule: Fully commissioned 2013 Landowners: 3 Employment: Up to 400 direct jobs at peak during construction, 800 indirect, and 30 during operation

About Meridian Energy

Meridian is New Zealand’s largest electricity generator and currently owns and operates nine hydro stations and three wind farms within New Zealand, and one wind farm in Australia:

• power station and eight hydro stations on the Waitaki River in the

• near

• in Southland

• West Wind farm in

• Mt Millar wind farm, Eyre Peninsula, South Australia

• CalRENEW 1 solar farm in Mendota, California

Internationally, Meridian has operations in Sydney Australia and San Francisco California.

Meridian also retails electricity to around 188,000 customers throughout New Zealand, which includes households, farms and businesses. It also provides electricity to New Zealand’s single largest electricity user, the Rio Tinto Alcan New Zealand Limited aluminium smelter in Bluff.

Meridian invests strongly in renewable energy development and has over 1,500 megawatts of Australasian development opportunities in the development pipeline and has recently commenced construction on the wind farm, in Hamilton, New Zealand.

About AGL

AGL is Australia's largest integrated renewable energy company and is taking action toward creating a sustainable energy future for our investors, communities and customers. Drawing on over 170 years of experience, AGL operates retail and merchant energy businesses, power generation assets and an upstream gas portfolio. AGL has Australia's largest retail energy and dual fuel customer base. AGL has a diverse power generation portfolio including base, peaking and intermediate generation plants, spread across traditional thermal generation as well as renewable sources including hydro, wind, landfill gas and biomass. AGL is Australia's largest private owner and operator of renewable energy assets and is looking to further expand this position by exploring a suite of low emission and renewable energy generation development opportunities.