******************************************************************

             NEWS RELEASE FROM GOVERNOR PETE WILSON

          WILSON ANNOUNCES MAJOR RESEARCH CONTRACT TO
              SAN DIEGO'S SOLAR TURBINES INC.

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PR95:217

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                    CONTACT: PAUL KRANHOLD
Thursday, September 14, 1995                      Kristine Berman
                                                  (916) 445-4571


Sacramento -- Governor Pete Wilson today announced that
Solar Turbines Inc. of San Diego has been awarded a major research
contract by the U.S. Department of Energy to develop an advanced
natural gas turbine system. The $67 million DOE investment is a
major cost-sharing in the $250 million program to
develop the next generation of natural gas-fired industrial
turbines that produce five to 15 megawatts of electricity. 

Governor Wilson, who created the California Gas Turbine Action
Alliance to support Solar Turbines in its competition for the DOE
grant, says the announcement is great news. 

"Solar Turbine's project makes use of highly skilled engineers,
technicians and support contractors in California...many of whom
have been out of work because of the down-sizing of federal
defense programs," said Wilson. 

The company will hire design engineers immediately, and the build-
up of several thousand jobs will begin in direct support and
secondary service markets in the state once production of the
turbine systems is launched in the next five years.

The Governor says Solar Turbine's success is due in part to the
efforts of California Gas Turbine Action Alliance. The Alliance
brought together key groups in the state -- from the governmental,
environmental, business, technical, and educational communities Ñ-
to support Solar Turbines with defining its product and proposal
to DOE.  

"With the Governor's leadership, we created a unprecedented level
of bipartisan support for this California project that helped
convince federal decision makers," said California Energy
Commission Chairman Charles Imbrecht, who sat on the Alliance.

Energy Commission Vice Chair Sally Rakow, head of the Energy
Commission's Research and Development Committee, says the new
Solar Turbines project will be an important product for the
American market and the world. 

"When this project is complete, Solar Turbines will have a product
that will be state-of-the-art in industrial gas turbines and
represents the first significant improvement in that technology in
many years.  This product will also be important to many
developing countries that require more electricity for economic
development," said Rakow. 

Solar Turbines (a wholly-owned subsidiary of heavy equipment
manufacturer Caterpillar Inc.) is the world's largest manufacturer
of industrial gas turbines. The company expects its advanced gas
turbine project will be 50 percent more efficient, reduce exhaust
emissions by 75 percent and reduce user operating costs by 10
percent over today's products.


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File Name: 
95-09-14_News_Release_from_Governor_Wilson_on_Solar_Turbine