GIVES LEADERSHIP AWARDS TO SCHEER, RICHARDSON, PATAKI AND ZWOLINSKI

New York City, June 30, 2004 - Over 350 bankers and investors met for two days on June 23-24 at the Metropolitan Club to explore the state of financing for renewable energy in America, in a conference entitled Renewable Energy Finance Forum, cosponsored by the American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE) and Euromoney Institutional Investor.

"The conference was completely oversubscribed in numbers and level of interest," said Gerard Strahan, division director for Euromoney, "exceeding our expectations for this first-time event. Attendees included top public leaders, bankers, investors and money managers, as well as developers, consultants and corporate executives.

ACORE gave its annual Leadership Awards in four categories. The Global leadership Award was given to Hermann Scheer, member of the German Bundestag, president of Eurosolar, Chairman of the World Council for Renewable Energy, and leader of renewable energy policy in Europe. "Renewable energy is not just a good thing to do," said Scheer, "it has become a matter of what we must do."

ACORE's National Leadership Award was given to New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who said: "I flew here to speak to you, the professionals on Wall Street, to ask you to step up with the financing our nation will need to put renewables in place in a big way." Richardson arrived in New York from the Western Governors Association meeting where he and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger led a commitment the day before for 30,000 megawatts of new renewable energy systems.

The State Leadership Award was given to New York Governor George E. Pataki, who was represented by Chief of Staff John Cahill, New York Public Service Commission Chairman William Flynn, Energy Advisor Charles Fox, and NYSERDA President Peter Smith.

ACORE's Corporate Leadership Award went to GE Wind Energy President Steven Zwolinski, for the outstanding professional management and industry leadership that he has brought to the renewable energy business community. "As a company that has been in the energy business for 125 years, GE sees the world in a state of continuous improvement and periodic change, said Zwolinski. "We see this period of change as an opportunity for investment, and renewable energy as a large market going forward."

Stephen Timms, the UK's Energy Minister provided international perspective to the conference. "I think it is safe to say the Europe is moving aggressively on renewables, and can be counted on," said Minister Timms.

Cape Wind developer James Gordon impressed the conference with a dramatic speech on the need to convert New England to a pollution-free future, and to do so in a financially prudent way.

Other speakers from the banking and project debt financial community included top professionals from CalPERS, TCW, Fortis Bank, Dexia Credit, Babcock & Brown, ArcLight, Marathon Capital, New Energy Capital, Nth Power, Perseus, Winslow Management, and others.

Conference co-chairmen Kenneth Locklin, Michael Eckhart, Dan Reicher, and Michael Ware declared the conference "the meeting that has been needed for 25 years." Ware added: "Its great to see renewable energy entering the mainstream, where markets and business and finance can build on the base of technologies that have been developed."

The conference will take place again next year, June 22-23, 2005 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. For further information, please see the web sites for ACORE and Euromoney.

ACORE, a 501(c)(3) membership nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, DC, is dedicated to bringing renewable energy into the mainstream of the US economy and lifestyle through information and communications programs.

ACORE's next conference will be a national policy forum on December 6-7, 2004 in Washington, DC. Membership information is available at www.AmericanRenewables.org.