Capstone Turbine Substantially Lowers Sales Expectations for Third Quarter

    CHATSWORTH, Calif.--Aug. 22, 2001--Capstone Turbine Corporation , a leading producer of low-emission microturbine systems, today announced that it has substantially lowered its expectations for sales of its 30-kilowatt and 60-kilowatt microturbine units during the quarter ending September 30, 2001 and for the full year 2001.
    "We reported in our SEC filing for the second quarter that a large portion of our sales occurred during the latter part of that quarter, and that the trend appeared to be continuing into the third quarter," said Dr. Ake Almgren, President and CEO of Capstone Turbine Corporation. "We pointed out then that, as a result, it was difficult for us to forecast the level of sales that might occur in the third quarter. So far during the third quarter, we have not yet begun to see a pickup in our order flow like we experienced in the latter part of the second quarter, while sales during the first half of the third quarter have lagged substantially behind those during the first half of the prior quarter. So we are lowering our expectations today accordingly.
    "We believe our microturbines do provide an attractive economic proposition for many of our potential customers in California and elsewhere, in light of the relatively high utility electricity rates that are being projected for the future. But during a period of economic slowdown, the capital investment required to achieve those benefits may have become a more significant factor for some customers. Our sales force has many proposals before potential customers, but in this environment it has become more challenging to estimate the rate at which those proposals will convert to sales. So we are not now in a position to estimate what our sales this quarter will turn out to be. Over the long term, we remain optimistic about our prospects for growth," said Dr. Almgren.
    The company stated that it anticipates reporting its results for the third quarter on or about October 25, 2001.