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For Immediate Release

A new addition to Pittsburgh campus: Penn State Solar Decathlon house finds a home at Bayer MaterialScience LLC

Zero energy, zero emissions Natural Fusion solar home to serve as an educational and R&D resource

October 15, 2009

Pittsburgh, October 15, 2009 — Bayer MaterialScience LLC announced today that it has signed a letter of intent to purchase Penn State University's Natural Fusion entry into the Solar Decathlon competition, and will move this innovative, zero energy, zero emissions house to its Pittsburgh campus.

The Solar Decathlon is a biannual international competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy to inspire university students and faculty to design, build and operate an entirely solar-powered house. Twenty teams from around the globe are participating in this most-recent competition. Penn State's eco-friendly home, featuring nearly a dozen Bayer MaterialScience materials and technologies, was displayed during the competition at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It will be moved to Pittsburgh following the competition's conclusion on Oct. 18.

"The Natural Fusion home will be a fantastic addition to our Pittsburgh campus, which is already a certified wildlife habitat," said Mark Witman, Ph.D, project lead for the Solar Decathlon project within Bayer MaterialScience LLC, and head, New Business, Industry Innovations-Construction in the U.S.

Witman, who points out that in addition to donating materials, Bayer MaterialScience experts also provided guidance throughout the project including initial design, prototyping, testing and construction, continued: "We're excited about the many ways in which we can leverage the home – from helping us educate area students as part of our award-winning Making Science Make Sense program, to serving as a test bed for new products and technologies, to enabling us to evaluate its real-world energy performance in a western Pennsylvania climate – to name just a few."

"Working closely with our industry associates, the Penn State students built a home infused with eco-friendly and energy-efficient materials incorporating sustainable, green building principles," said Bob Kumpf, chief administrative officer, Bayer MaterialScience LLC. "We greatly encourage and support this "green" approach to construction. Here on our Pittsburgh campus, we'll utilize the home as a platform to raise awareness of the materials, systems and technologies that can be leveraged to unlock energy savings in buildings not five or 10 years down the road, but now."

The signing of the letter of intent and move to Pittsburgh completes a two-year process that started with the Natural Fusion team's vision for the home.

"This is an outstanding moment for the students and faculty and our industry partners, such as Bayer MaterialScience," said Dr. Jeffrey R.S. Brownson, faculty director for the Natural Fusion project, Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering, Penn State University. "We had several offers to purchase the Natural Fusion home, but we think it is a natural fit for our solar house to find a home on the Bayer campus, where it will be used to continue our vision of advancing awareness and acceptance of sustainable, affordable construction."

Bayer MaterialScience LLC is one of the leading producers of polymers and high-performance plastics in North America and is part of the global Bayer MaterialScience business with nearly 15,100 employees at 30 sites around the world and 2008 sales of 9.7 billion euros. Business activities are focused on the manufacture of high-tech polymer materials and the development of innovative solutions for products used in many areas of daily life. The main segments served are the automotive, electrical and electronics, construction, medical, and sports and leisure industries.

For more information about Bayer MaterialScience's eco-friendly materials and technologies, call 1-800-662-2927, e-mail naftainfo@bayerbms.com or visit www.bayermaterialsciencenafta.com.

For more information about Penn State University's Natural Fusion project, visit http://www.naturalfusion.org/.

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This website may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer Group or subgroup management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayer's public reports which are available on the Bayer website at www.bayer.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.

Media Contact(s)
Name:	Bill Allan
Phone:	412-777-5200
Company:	Bayer MaterialScience
Email:	bill.allan@bayerbms.com