American Superconductor (AMSC) announced this evening that they are increasing their shipments to China’s largest wind turbine manufacturer Sinovel in order to meet increased demand.  The amended contract will increase the number of AMSC’s PowerModule PM3000MW power converters which allows Sinovel to include grid friendly features with its wind turbines, such as controlling power flows, regulating voltage, monitoring system performance and maximizing efficiency.  The overall contract value increases by $20 million for AMSC.

“Sinovel has ascended to the top of China’s rapidly growing wind industry and continues to increase its market share and backlog,” said Greg Yurek, founder and chief executive officer of AMSC. “This acceleration of shipments to Sinovel was necessitated by recent wind turbine orders received by them for new large-scale wind farms in China. We anticipate that Sinovel will continue to grow rapidly throughout the next decade, which we expect will give rise to new orders for our core electrical components for 2011 and beyond.”

According to a forecast by the Global Wind Energy Council, China will surpass the United States to become the largest growth market for wind power generating capacity this year.

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