USA - AMSC receives $450M follow-on order from China's Sinovel Wind

American Superconductor Corporation, a leading energy technologies company, recently announced that it has received a $450M order from Beijing-based Sinovel Wind Corporation Limited for core electrical components for 1.5 megawatt (MW) wind turbines. The contract calls for shipments to begin in January 2009 and increase in amount year-over-year through the contract's completion in December 2011.

AMSC's wind turbine electrical systems and core electrical components include the company's proprietary PowerModule power converters. They enable reliable, high-performance wind turbine operation by controlling power flows, regulating voltage, monitoring system performance and controlling the pitch of wind turbine blades to maximize efficiency.

"Sinovel is the epitome of business success in China and is one of the fastest growing wind turbine manufacturers in the world," said Greg Yurek, founder and chief executive officer of AMSC. "The core electrical components covered under this contract will be used to support more than 10 gigawatts of wind power capacity, nearly double China's total wind power installed base at the end of 2007. It is invigorating to see Sinovel's success in bringing much needed electrical generation capacity to the Chinese power market at a crucial time in that country's expansion. We are proud to work in tandem with Sinovel on this important endeavor."

According to the Global Wind Energy Council's Global Wind 2007 Report, China's installed base of wind power capacity grew more than 130 percent in 2007 to approximately 6.1 gigawatts (GW). The China Wind Power Report 2007 — published jointly by the GWEC, Greenpeace and the Chinese Renewable Energy Industry Association — predicts that figure could exceed 120 GW by 2020.