Yellowstone Capital Partners Launches $50 Million Second Alternative and Renewable Energy Fund

HOUSTON, Jan. 9, 2008 -- Yellowstone Capital Partners LLC of Houston, Texas, today announced the formation and launch of its second alternative and renewable energy fund -- Yellowstone Energy Ventures II, L.P. ("YEV II"). Yellowstone has substantially completed its investment program relative to its first alternative and renewable energy fund -- Yellowstone Energy Ventures, L.P. ("YEV I") which was launched in mid-2004.

Both YEV I and YEV II are venture funds focused primarily on early stage investments in the energy technology segment of the Cleantech industry. The funds have made and will continue to make a variety of investments in solar, energy storage, wind, clean coal, nuclear, and alternative fuel technologies. YEV I's investments include several notable Cleantech early stage companies including, SolFocus, Heliovolt, Protonex, and Cellex Power.

Yellowstone is targeting $50 million of commitments for YEV II with Yellowstone Capital as its lead investor and anticipates an initial close of outside investors in early 2008. The fund will be managed by its managing general partners Omar Sawaf, Bill Brewer, and Rick Owen.

"The global dynamics that motivated Yellowstone to create YEV I back in 2004 not only remain in place today, but are even stronger than they were at that time ..." said Omar A. Sawaf, Chairman of Yellowstone. "Strong global demand and economic growth in virtually every region of the world -- combined with high capacity utilization and depleting supplies for fossil fuels, the global drive to use cleaner fuels to fight global warming, and energy security concerns -- have combined to close the economic gap between fossil fuels and renewables. In addition, technology improvement in the alternative and renewable space continues to escalate at a rapid pace and increases in government regulation and incentives not only abroad, but now being seen in the U.S., are accelerating the adoption of these new energy technologies. We believe all of these factors make the alternative and renewable energy technology segment of the Cleantech industry an attractive and unique opportunity for long term investors. We also believe that Yellowstone's early entry into the segment and the relationships we have developed over the past four years are creating significant deal flow that can benefit investors in both YEV I and YEV II."

Yellowstone Capital Partners LLC, headquartered in Houston, Texas, is a boutique private equity firm and merchant bank which invests its own capital, as well as its sponsored funds, specializing in three primary industry groups: Energy, Manufacturing, and Life Sciences.

For more information regarding Yellowstone or either of the funds, please contact Rick Owen at (713) 650-0065.

E-mail: info@yellowstonecapital.com