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New
Release -- Superconductor Week does not edit or endorse the following
news release:
American
Superconductor Receives Follow-on Order from Austrian Wind Turbine Supplier,
Windtec, for Wind Turbine Generator Control Systems
Westborough,
MA, Nov. 29: American Superconductor Corporation
(NASDAQ:AMSC),
a leading electricity solutions company, today announced a follow-on order for
its proprietary PowerModule-based wind turbine generator control systems 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 23 wind turbine
generators - each rated at 1.5 megawatts - which Windtec plans to ship to
China
and
Japan
in calendar 2006. AMSC expects to ship
the PowerModule PM1000 power converters, which
manage and stabilize electricity produced by wind turbine generators, to Windtec
in the first half of calendar year 2006.
This
order follows Windtec's successful utilization of AMSC's PowerModule PM1000
Product Developer Kit in a wind turbine test bed. PowerModule PM1000 power
electronic converters - which are based on advanced Insulated Gate Bipolar
Transistor (IGBT) power semiconductor devices - provide a platform for designers
to quickly develop both hardware and software elements of power conversion
systems ranging from 60 kilowatts to multi-megawatts for a wide array of
applications.
"The
ability to modify the PM1000's standard software in order to accommodate
Windtec's unique requirements allowed us to focus our development efforts on
wind turbine systems instead of on
IGBT-based power converter
development,"
said Gerald Hehenberger, President of Windtec. "This has also allowed us to
focus more resources on the introduction of advanced control technologies into
the market - a change that we believe gives us a competitive edge in the
fast-growing market for wind generation of electricity."
From
1990 to 2002, wind was the fastest growing power source worldwide on a
percentage basis, with an annual average growth rate exceeding 30%, according to
the American Wind Energy Association. They also note that in 2004 world
wind capacity reached 47,317 MW. AMSC participates in this growing market
both through sales of its Dynamic-VAR, or D-VAR® systems, which allow wind farm
developers to meet the standards for interconnecting wind farms to power grids,
and through sales of PowerModule-based wind turbine generator control systems,
which are incorporated directly into wind turbines.
"We
have been working closely with Windtec to develop innovative solutions for wind
customers around the world," said Greg Yurek, chief executive officer of
AMSC. "This follow-on production order demonstrates the success of
AMSC's PowerModule PM1000 power converters and PowerModule Advanced
Configuration Tools to rapidly develop solutions for the wind generation
industry."
PowerModule
PM1000 Technology
Each
wind turbine generator control system that AMSC supplies to Windtec is comprised
of a PM1000 line-side converter and a 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 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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