Sep 19 2007
American Superconductor Corporation, a leading energy technologies company, today announced at the HUSUMwind 2007 trade show in Germany that it has received a follow-on order for approximately $20 million in wind turbine electrical systems from Beijing-based Sinovel Wind Corporation Limited.
The order follows a $70 million order received from Sinovel Wind in July 2007 and additional D-VAR(R) orders for grid interconnection of domestic and international wind farms.
"AMSC's wind power business continues to expand globally, with China serving as our largest market," said Greg Yurek, founder and chief executive officer of AMSC. "As Sinovel Wind continues its rapid production ramp, we are also working closely with two additional customers in China to help them initiate production of wind turbines in order to meet China's growing demand for zero-emission, wind generated electricity. We see strong potential to add a fourth Chinese customer this fiscal year and are working with other potential customers to expand our reach into other countries."
The Global Wind Energy Council estimates that approximately 1,347 MW of wind generated electrical capacity was installed in all of China in 2006 and expects 8,000 MW of additional capacity to be added from 2007 through 2010. Worldwide wind power capacity is expected to more than double from 74 gigawatts (GW) at the end of 2006 to nearly 150 GW by the end of 2010.
AMSC now has wind power customers in Australia, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, the U.K. and the U.S. "The global wind industry is expected to continue to grow approximately 20 percent annually through 2010 as countries around the world rely increasingly on wind power to help meet their growing demands for renewable sources of electricity," said Yurek. "We expect to see continued growth in sales of our existing product line for the wind industry and to expand our offerings beyond power electronics going forward."
The order reported today calls for AMSC to ship approximately $20 million worth of customized power electronic systems to Sinovel in AMSC's fiscal year 2008 (ending March 31, 2009) for use in Sinovel's 1.5 megawatt (MW) wind energy systems. AMSC's turbine electrical systems provide reliable, high-performance wind turbine operation by controlling power flows, regulating voltage and controlling the pitch of wind turbine blades to maximize efficiency.
http://www.amsc.com