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American Superconductor Receives Order for
PowerModule(tm) Systems from Windtec Systemtechnik for 150 Wind Turbines to be
Installed in China
Westborough, MA, Feb. 22: American Superconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:
AMSC), a leading electricity solutions company, today announced it has
received a follow-on order for its proprietary PowerModule(tm)-based wind
turbine generator control systems for 150 wind turbines from Windtec
Systemtechnik GmbH (Windtec),
a supplier of large wind turbine components and system technology, based in
Klagenfurt, Austria. The PowerModule-based control systems will be utilized in
the electrical equipment of wind turbine generators - each rated at 1.5
megawatts - which Windtec plans to ship to China in calendar 2006. AMSC expects
to ship the PowerModule PM1000 power converters, which manage and stabilize
electricity produced by wind turbine generators, to Windtec by the end of
calendar year 2006.
This is the third and largest order that Windtec has recently placed with
American Superconductor and follows Windtec's successful utilization of AMSC's
PowerModule PM1000 Product Developer Kit in a wind turbine test bed and its
subsequent first production order for PowerModule control systems for 23 wind
turbines in China and Japan.
"Windtec is quite pleased with the PowerModule's flexible platform, which allows
us to quickly develop both hardware and software elements required by our
control systems," said Gerald Hehenberger, President of Windtec. "AMSC's
PowerModule systems provide us with a critical competitive edge to penetrate the
rapidly growing Chinese wind market. We are very excited to have a strong
foothold in what is anticipated to be the largest wind turbine market in the
world."
North American Windpower Magazine recently reported a new study that shows China
could at least double its current wind energy target for 2020. The report, which
was released by the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association (CREIA) and
sponsored by Greenpeace and the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), also
indicated that China's current wind energy plan is to reach 20 GW by 2020. This
scale of wind power would need 20,000 typical modern wind turbines by 2020, and
the investment generated could be worth $40 billion, putting China on track to
become the world's biggest energy market by 2020.
"Our customers like Windtec are able to leverage the capabilities of the
PowerModule PM1000 platform to rapidly develop innovative solutions for wind
customers around the world," said Greg Yurek, chief executive officer of AMSC.
"This is a prime example of how our proprietary PowerModule system is an
enabling technology solving the problems of voltage regulation quickly and
efficiently and allowing for rapid deployment to meet market opportunities. We
are delighted that Windtec has selected our product for their expansion into the
exploding wind market in China."
With this new order, AMSC, through its proprietary D-VAR® and PowerModule PM1000
product lines will be providing voltage regulation and meeting grid
interconnection standards for over 1.3 billion watts of zero emission wind
generated electricity for wind farms in Australia, Canada, China, Japan,
Scotland and the U.S.
PowerModule PM1000 Technology
Each wind turbine generator control system that AMSC supplies to Windtec
comprises a PowerModule PM1000 line-side converter and a PowerModule PM1000
generator-side converter. Synchronized operation of the two units is coordinated
through high speed Controlled Area Network (CAN) communications. Integration of
Windtec's proprietary software into the PowerModule PM1000 power converter was
achieved through AMSC's PowerModule Advanced Configuration Tools (P-ACT(tm)).
The P-ACT tool set provides an Application Programming Interface (API) that
allows engineers access to PM1000 parameters and communication objects. The
P-ACT tool set also provides a development framework to allow automatic linking
of customer code with AMSC's core software.
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