GE ENERGY TO SUPPLY WIND TURBINES FOR TURKEY'S LARGEST WIND ENERGY PROJECT

ATHENS, GREECE - March 1, 2006 - GE Energy is providing 20 of its 1.5-megawatt wind turbines for a new, 30-megawatt wind energy project in Turkey, soon to become the country's largest wind energy facility. Announced by GE at the 2006 European Wind Energy Conference & Exhibition, the project marks the company's first wind turbine supply contract in Turkey.

Owned by Bares Elektrik Uretim A.S., a subsidiary of Bilgin Elektrik Uretim Iletim, Dagitim ve Ticaret A.S. and Yapisan Elektrik Uretim A.S., the Bares II Wind Energy Power Plant project also represents Turkey's first privately owned wind energy power plant (WEPP). The project developers, Bilgin Elektrik and Yapisan, are owned by the Bilgin Energy Group of Companies.

"GE Energy is honored to be a part of this milestone project - Turkey's largest wind energy plant," said Robert Gleitz, general manager of GE Energy's wind business. "The Bares II project underscores GE's commitment to bringing cleaner energy solutions to the Turkish power industry and other global customers. The project also demonstrates the private sector's growing confidence in wind energy."

Located 100 kilometers south of Istanbul and 110 kilometers northwest of Bursa in northwestern Turkey, the project site comprises approximately 600,000 square meters of land in the Erikli Village-Dutliman Village-Sahilyenice Village region, within the town of Bandirma. Bandirma is mostly known for its wind resources and its own harbor that serves the region's industrial needs.

Annually, the facility is expected to generate enough electricity to serve approximately 25,000 average Turkish homes. By the end of 2005, there were 20 megawatts of installed wind energy in Turkey, with projections of 620 megawatts of installed capacity by the end of 2009.

Electricity from Bares II will be transmitted to a substation via underground power cables rated at 34.5 kV and transformed via eight kilometers of transmission lines into 154 kV at the substation. The power then will be fed into the national grid system owned by the high-voltage grid operator Turkish Power Transmission Company (TEIAS). The new plant's output will be sold to the wholesale electricity trading market.

In addition to supplying wind turbines, GE also will install the units and provide operation and two years of post-commissioning maintenance for the facility.

Bares II is expected to begin commercial operation by the end of May 2006. The project will create 60 temporary construction jobs as well as 10 permanent operations and maintenance (O&M) and five security jobs.

In recent years, Turkey has taken important steps to expand its wind energy capacity. In 2001, the country approved plans to build 17 new wind energy power plants and, in May 2005, adopted a new renewable energy law to provide "feed-in tariffs" for electricity from renewable sources, primarily wind energy.