USA - American Superconductor connects wind farms in the US and Canada

American Superconductor Corporation , a leading energy technologies company, today announced that it has received orders for its D-VAR grid interconnection solution for two additional wind farms in the U.S. and Canada.

The two wind farms will provide well over 200 megawatts (MW) of power for the North American market. The D-VAR systems are to be delivered to the wind farms by the end of 2008.

AMSC’s proprietary D-VAR systems enable wind farm developers to meet the requirements for interconnection of wind farms to power grids – the pathway for wind-generated electricity to customers. With these new orders, AMSC’s D-VAR solution will now be serving 20 wind farms in North American and a total of 35 wind farms worldwide. Including AMSC’s core electrical components that it sells to manufacturers of wind turbines, with these new orders, AMSC products will be serving approximately 7,100 MW (7.1 gigawatts) of wind power – an increase of 120 percent from one year ago. Seven gigawatts represents more than 7 percent of wind generated electricity worldwide as of December 31, 2007, according to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).

“Our suite of offerings for the wind power market is unique and diverse, ranging from wind turbine designs and consulting services to wind turbine electrical components and voltage regulation systems for entire wind farms,” said AMSC founder and chief executive officer, Greg Yurek. “As a result, 65 percent of our business today is in the rapidly growing global wind industry.”

According to the GWEC’s Global Wind 2007 Report, issued in April 2008, wind power capacity grew 27 percent worldwide in 2007 to more than 94 gigawatts (GW). Wind power capacity in the United States and Canada grew by 45 percent and 26 percent, respectively, in 2007.