Focus Continues on Power Generation and Distribution, Power Quality & Related Information Technologies

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, October 10, 2000 – Nth Power Technologies, a pioneer and leader in the field of energy and power industry venture capital, announced today that it completed raising $120.5 million last week from new and existing investors for its second venture capital fund.

Nth Power’s first venture fund raised $63 million from strategic investors including ABB, Cinergy, Energy East, Electricité de France, and Hydro Quebec. These organizations are also participating in Fund II, joined by new strategic and financial investors including Alliant Energy, Avistar, Ballentine Capital, Bank of America Capital, Central Hudson Gas and Electric, CIBC World Markets, First Energy Corp, Itochu International Inc., Lehman Brothers Venture Capital, Meridian Energy (New Zealand), NiSource Development, Norsk Hydro (Norway), PanCanadian Petroleum Limited and Pacific Venture Capital (a unit of PG&E Corporation.)

Nth’s investment interest focuses on distributed generation and storage; energy-related communications, information technology and business services; power quality; and transmission and distribution automation.

Two of Nth’s portfolio companies had their initial public offerings of common stock this year. Capstone Turbine Corporation (Nasdaq: CPST) – which develops, designs, assembles and sells micro turbines to provide electricity at the site of power consumption and supplemental power for hybrid electric vehicles – went public in late June at $16 per share and closed yesterday, Day, October 00, at $00 per share.

Last week, Proton Energy Systems, Inc., (Nasdaq: PRTN) completed its IPO at $17 per share, and the stock closed yesterday at more than $00 per share. This Nth portfolio company produces proton exchange membrane electrochemical products that it employs in hydrogen generating devices, and in regenerative fuel cell systems that function as power generating and energy storage devices.

In addition to Capstone Turbine and Proton Energy, Nth currently has significant investments in companies such as Allconnect.com, Electronic Power Conditioning, Evergreen Solar, Inari, MainStreet Networks, Metallic Power, NanoGram, Nexant, Pentech Energy Solutions, Silicon Energy, UtilConnect, and Water Management Services. Co-investors in Nth portfolio companies include Crosspoint Ventures, Institutional Venture Partners, Integral Capital, Morgan Stanley Ventures and Sevin Rosen, as well as Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

“We are greatly encouraged both by the strategic and financial success of our first fund, and by the enthusiastic investment interest we generated for our much larger second fund,” said Nth Power co-founder and co-managing director, Nancy Floyd. “We have seen – and continue to see to an even greater degree – strong and timely interest from major investors throughout the fund-raising process, along with excellent deal flow from attractive start-ups. This means we continue to be in a key position to explore investment opportunities in a wide range of entrepreneurial businesses with excellent technologies and, most importantly, the management leadership needed to turn needed innovation into solid, growing and potentially profitable enterprises.”

Discussing the origins and future focus of Nth Fund investments, Maurice Gunderson, co-founder and co-managing director, said: “We first observed the trends that would create tremendous opportunities for growth and innovation in the energy space in 1993, stimulated by our assessment that deregulation in the energy industry was coming and would produce significant opportunities for entrepreneurs, their customers and, therefore, for investors. In fact, we expected that the growth curve would track what happened when deregulation hit the telecommunications industry, and even we have been impressed by how much more rapidly attention and capital is flowing into this arena.”

Concluding his comments, Mr. Gunderson said: “What is happening around the world – as the availability, price and quality of electricity and other power-related resources move into the center of public attention – is cause for both concern and optimism. Public concern is likely to keep driving appropriate deregulation and free market activity, and the resulting innovative technological solutions will provide concrete cause for optimism. With these and other such forces in motion, the long-range objective is to better serve both the developed and undeveloped worlds with the quantity and quality of energy needed to power human progress.”

About Nth Power Nth Power Technologies is a venture capital firm focused on high-growth investment opportunities arising from the restructuring of the global energy utility marketplace. The fundamental changes taking place in the $300 billion global energy utility industry have given rise to many venture capital investment opportunities, and Nth Power has emerged as a leading source of venture capital for this sector. The firm is managed by a professional investment team with extensive experience growing successful companies in the energy and communication fields and managing venture capital funds. For further information, go to http://www.nthfund.com