Wind Today

Devens, MA--American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC), a global power technologies company, announced today that it has received an additional follow-on order for $10 million worth of wind turbine core electrical components from China’s CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Research Institute Co., Ltd. (CSR-ZELRI).

Based in the Hunan province of China, CSR-ZELRI is a subsidiary of China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corp. (CSR), China’s largest railway equipment and associated power systems manufacturer.

CSR-ZELRI will use the components in the 1.65 megawatt (MW) wind turbines designed by AMSC’s wholly owned AMSC Windtec™ subsidiary.

AMSC expects to ship all of the core components to CSR-ZELRI by the end of calendar year 2010.

CSR-ZELRI installed its first prototype wind turbine in Jianghua, located in China’s Hunan Province in November 2007, approximately 10 months after licensing AMSC Windtec’s 1.65 MW doubly-fed induction wind turbine design.

The company entered series production of the turbines in mid-2008.

This latest core component order is the fifth that AMSC has received from CSR-ZELRI and follows close on the heels of a $10 million order booked in November 2009.

“CSR-ZELRI has done an excellent job of rapidly scaling its wind turbine manufacturing operation to capitalize on the strong growth of China’s wind industry,” said Dan McGahn, president and chief operating officer of AMSC.

“This success has led to a quick succession of core component orders, each larger than the last.

"With five Chinese wind turbine manufacturers who have adopted AMSC Windtec designs either in production or set to enter production soon, 2010 is shaping up to be another record year for AMSC.”

CSR-ZELRI licensed AMSC Windtec’s proprietary model WT1650 wind turbine designs under a contract signed in December 2006.

Under the terms of the agreement, CSR-ZELRI has the rights to manufacture, use and sell the 1.65 MW wind energy system in China.

Windtec also provided training for CSR-ZELRI’s staff as well as project management services for the company’s first two prototype units.

Under the terms of the original license agreement, AMSC also received the right to provide CSR-ZELRI with core electrical components for all of its 1.65 MW wind turbines.

According to the Global Wind Energy Council, China’s wind power market experienced another record year of growth in 2009, more than doubling its wind generating capacity from 12.1 gigawatts (GW) to 25.1 GW.

Industry research firm Emerging Energy Research (EER) expects China’s total installed capacity to exceed 200 GW by 2020.

more SUPPLIER NEWS & NEW PRODUCTS...