AMSC India Formed to Address India?s Rapidly Growing Wind Energy

American Superconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: AMSC), a global energy technologies company, today announced that it has formed AMSC India to serve India’s rapidly growing wind energy and power grid markets with AMSC’s power electronics and superconductor-based solutions. With its regional head office in Delhi and a service office in Pune, it will provide local applications engineering, sales, business development, and field service support.

“India is beginning to tap into its renewable energy resources and is making significant investments to vastly improve the throughput and reliability of its power grid,” said Greg Yurek, founder and chief executive officer of AMSC. “Our advanced power electronics and superconductor solutions are well positioned to address these needs both in the near and long term. AMSC India has been formed to provide high-quality local technical support for our new wind power customers and build a strong foundation for future sales into India’s broader renewable energy and power grid markets.”

According to the World Bank, roughly 40 percent of residences in India are without electricity, and blackouts are a common occurrence throughout the country’s main cities. To address this shortfall, the Indian government has established an ambitious “Power for All by 2012” plan that will require the country’s installed generation capacity to grow from 140,000 megawatts (MW) to nearly 225,000 MW by 2012. It also will require billions of dollars of investment in India’s transmission and distribution infrastructure.

According to the Global Wind Energy Council’s Global Wind 2008 Report, India now ranks fifth in the world in terms of total installed wind power capacity. Capacity in the country grew by 22 percent in 2008 to 9,600 MW. The Indian Wind Energy Association estimates that the country has 65,000 MW of wind power potential.

AMSC’s first two wind turbine manufacturing customers in India are Ghodawat Energy Limited and Inox Wind Limited. Both licensed AMSC Windtec™ turbine designs within the past 18 months. AMSC, which is the exclusive power electronic system supplier for all Ghodawat and Inox wind turbines, announced today that it has received initial orders for five wind turbine electrical systems from Ghodawat and three wind turbine electrical systems from Inox.

Ghodawat, based in Kolhapur in the state of Maharashtra, India, will use the electrical systems for its initial production of 1.65 MW wind turbines designed by AMSC Windtec. Ghodawat, in collaboration with AMSC Windtec and AMSC India, has successfully erected and tested its first reference 1.65 MW wind turbine.

Inox, located in Noida in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India, plans to begin volume production of 2 MW wind turbines designed by AMSC Windtec in 2010. Inox is in the process of collaborating with AMSC Windtec and AMSC India to erect its first reference wind turbine prior to initiation of volume production in 2010.

HYUNDAI HEAVY INDUSTRIES ORDERS INITIAL WIND TURBINE ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS FROM AMSC

HHI’s Production Schedule for 1.65 Megawatt Wind Turbines on Track. Initial Set of 17 Electrical Systems to be Shipped by AMSC by the End of January 2010.

American Superconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: AMSC), a global energy technologies company, today announced that it has received an initial order for 17 sets of wind turbine electrical systems from Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (Korean Stock Exchange: HHI). AMSC’s wind turbine electrical systems and core electrical components include the company’s proprietary PowerModule™ power converters, pitch and yaw converters, SCADA systems and other power electronics.

They enable reliable, highperformance wind turbine operation by controlling power flows, regulating voltage, monitoring system performance and controlling the pitch of wind turbine blades to maximize efficiency. Based in Ulsan, South Korea, HHI is the world’s largest shipbuilder, a global leader in turnkey power plants and offshore projects, and a major global supplier of high voltage electrical
equipment.

HHI will use the electrical systems in 1.65 megawatt (MW) doubly fed induction wind turbines it will be producing under a license from AMSC’s wholly owned AMSC Windtec™ subsidiary. In addition to the 1.65 MW wind turbine designs, HHI also has a contract with AMSC
Windtec for 2 MW doubly fed induction wind turbine designs. HHI’s marketing and sales rights for both wind turbines extend to most countries around the world, including those in North America.

“Leveraging our extensive heavy industry experience as well as AMSC Windtec’s proven wind turbine designs and customer support, HHI has been able to produce its first wind turbine less than a year after licensing the design from AMSC Windtec,” said Young N. Kim, Senior Executive Vice President and COO, HHI Electro Electric Systems. “We are pleased to announce that our renewable energy business is now entering an exciting new phase with the commencement of volume wind turbine production for the global market.”
HHI installed and commissioned its first reference 1.65 MW wind turbine near its manufacturing facility in Ulsan, South Korea in June 2009. The company expects it will soon receive Germanischer Lloyd certification, and it plans to begin shipping wind turbines to customers by the end of 2009.

“As expected, HHI has moved swiftly through the prototype phase and into volume production,” said AMSC founder and Chief Executive Officer Greg Yurek. “We are confident that HHI’s aggressive business plan and global reputation for manufacturing excellence will enable them to be a key player in the wind power market. With production set to begin in their new wind turbine factory in Gunsan, South Korea this fall, we look forward to receiving additional orders from HHI as they ramp up from their initial production platform.”

About American Superconductor (NASDAQ: AMSC)

AMSC offers an array of proprietary technologies and solutions spanning the electric power infrastructure – from generation to delivery to end use. The company is a leader in alternative energy, providing proven, megawatt-scale wind turbine designs and electrical control systems. The company also offers a host of Smart Grid technologies for power grid operators that enhance the reliability, efficiency and capacity of the grid, and seamlessly integrate renewable energy sources into the power infrastructure. These include superconductor power cable systems, grid-level surge protectors and power electronics-based voltage stabilization systems. AMSC’s technologies are protected by a broad and deep intellectual property portfolio consisting of hundreds of patents and licenses worldwide.

American Superconductor’s (AMSC) PowerModule™ and D-VAR® technologies are proving to be the solutions of choice for wind farms around the globe – enabling operators to regulate voltage to optimize the operation and output of individual wind turbines and wind farm owners to meet the standards for interconnection of wind farms to power grids.

Technology transfer of fully developed wind turbines is provided by the Windtec subsidiary of AMSC.

Wind Energy Market

Wind energy has emerged as the fastest growing source of energy, with 120 GW installed throughout the world at the end of 2008 according to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC). They project that the total cumulative worldwide capacity could exceed 1,000 GW by 2020. As the total base of installed wind capacity continues to grow with the installation of additional wind turbines and wind farms, compliance with interconnection criteria becomes increasingly important. In many cases, dynamic voltage regulation and continuous power factor correction are required to keep wind turbine generators online, assuring that the business interests and reliability expectations of both wind developers and utilities are met.

Technical challenges

Developers, operators, and utilities face many challenges when interconnecting large, distributed sources of generation with fluctuating output, such as wind energy. These challenges come in many forms.

Many of today’s wind turbines are induction type generators that absorb large amounts of VARs (Volt-Amperes Reactive) from the grid. For such machines, VAR flow fluctuates with the power output of the turbines. Uncompensated, these variations in VAR flow can cause severe voltage fluctuations, affecting overall power quality and the reliability of the local transmission grid. Traditionally, switched capacitors have been used to compensate for fluctuating VAR requirements. However, a typical wind farm can experience 50-100 capacitor switching events on a given day. Such frequent switching can cause stresses, effectively reducing life-cycle times of the capacitor switches. In addition, some wind generator gearboxes are sensitive to large step changes in voltage associated with normal capacitor switching, which can overstress the gearbox – one of the costliest and most maintenance intensive components of a wind turbine.

Keeping wind turbines online under low voltage conditions is also a potential trouble spot that developers and operators need to consider. Transient voltage events that drop voltage below turbine tolerance levels can cause generators to trip offline. Most interconnection standards today require wind farms to have the ability to ride through faults (Low Voltage Ride Through). This can be accomplished either by the wind turbine manufacturer or with a centralized solution in the wind farm substation.

D-VAR® Systems

AMSC’s D-VAR system is ideally suited to help meet wind farm interconnection standards. The D-VAR system is a fully integrated, inverter-based reactive compensation system (STATCOM). It can be seamlessly integrated with low cost capacitor banks in an extremely cost-effective solution that provides steady-state voltage regulation, power factor correction, and high and low voltage ride through capability for the entire wind farm. The D-VAR system can also “soft-switch” capacitors, thereby eliminating the voltage step changes seen by the wind farm and the utility.

D-VAR systems are cost effective solutions that can provide tight voltage regulation and power factor correction to alleviate fluctuating voltage and VAR demands at wind farms.

AMSC’ s newest dynamic reactive power product is the D-VAR RT system designed to enable individual wind turbines to meet even the most restrictive grid interconnection requirements. This patent-pending product brings a powerful solution to operators of existing wind turbines that are facing challenges due to new regulatory requirements, such as the Spanish grid interconnection requirement P.O.12.3.

The D-VAR RT in-turbine system is a powerful, cost-effective technology that dynamically stabilizes the wind turbines and also can regulate the voltage of the collection system connecting to the power transmission grid. Problems solved by the D-VAR RT system include voltage regulation, power factor correction and low- and high-voltage ride through.
PowerModule™ Power Converters

The AMSC PowerModule PM1000 is a power converter designed with a building block approach that can be placed right in the wind turbine. The PM1000 inverter can provide power flow control and low voltage ride through (LVRT) capability, similar to the external D-VAR solution, and is cost effective for smaller wind farms. It is a highly power dense (130 W/ in3), fully programmable, flexible and modular system and can be applied to various wind turbine makes and models.
AMSC Windtec® Engineering and Design

Since its founding in 1995, AMSC Windtec has become one of the world’s leading wind turbine engineering companies, with more than a dozen customers worldwide.

Complete customer-specific development of high quality and highly efficient wind turbines are provided by one independent company with many years of experience and expertise.

Technology transfer of fully developed wind turbines.

One single and professional source for core components — fast and easy implementation, fully tested, highly reliable, including:

* Superior pitch system, including unique SafetyLOCK™ solution
* Superior power quality due to product innovation such as SuperGEAR™ technology
* Highly efficient power converter system with IGBT technology
* Complete control system, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system
* Professional training and support from development to series production

www.amsc.com/