Last night American Superconductor (AMSC) announced a big $100 million follow on order from Sinovel and Kaufman Bros likes the news.  The firm is upgrading the stock from Hold to Buy and raising the price target to $36.

Hat tip to StreetInsider.com for the following analyst comment:

“Yesterday AMSC announced its largest customer, Sinovel, had placed a follow-on order for $100 million in electronics for its new 3MW wind turbine. The electronics will ship beginning in March 2010 and AMSC expects this order to be filled by the end of 2011. This announcement has four significant positive implications for the stock. First it shows that the backlog pipeline is getting refilled…Second, it shows that Sinovel is not making any near-term plans to work around AMSC designs…Third, this order validates the 3MW wind turbine product which should encourage other AMSC customers to take the next step. Finally, it shows that there is no let up in demand or financing for wind turbines in China, AMSC’s core geographic segment…While the backlog may show weakness in the near term, we believe this order is significant enough in its own right to warrant an upgrade of the shares.”

Shares of AMSC are up about 10% in premarket trading.