American Superconductor Corp. and Beijing-based Sinovel Wind Group Co., Ltd. (Sinovel) announced that they have expanded their strategic partnership to include additional wind turbine designs for both the onshore and offshore markets. Under the new agreement, Sinovel and AMSC’s wholly-owned AMSC Windtec™ subsidiary, will design and jointly develop a range of advanced, multi-megawatt-scale wind turbines that Sinovel plans to market and sell worldwide. Sinovel expects to begin volume production of these multi-megawatt-scale wind turbines by the end of 2012 and, as part of the agreement, will purchase core electrical components from AMSC for these new machines.
In 2009, Sinovel shipped approximately 2,400 of its 1.5 MW wind turbines (branded the SL1500) and approximately 100 of it 3 MW wind turbines (branded the SL3000).
"Since its founding in 2004, Sinovel has proven to be China’s dominant wind turbine manufacturer while also quickly rising in the global rankings," said Sinovel Chairman and President Han Junliang. "Our next objective is to become the largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world. This will be accomplished by our ability to offer a wide array of highly reliable, high-efficiency wind turbines for the global onshore and offshore markets. We are pleased to expand our partnership with AMSC as we execute on our growth plans."
AMSC Windtec and Sinovel first formed their relationship in 2005. Since that time, AMSC has provided core electrical components for Sinovel’s 1.5 MW wind turbines as well as engineering support services and power electronics for the 3 MW and 5 MW wind turbines that have been co-developed by Sinovel and AMSC Windtec. Sinovel began shipping 3 MW wind turbines for the onshore and offshore markets in 2009.
"Sinovel has built a very strong, fast-growing wind turbine business in China and is now poised to address the global markets with highly reliable, competitively priced wind turbines," said Greg Yurek, founder and Chief Executive Officer of AMSC. "We are excited to be able to expand the breadth and depth of our partnership with Sinovel to include a range of new wind turbine designs based on advanced technologies that will further strengthen Sinovel’s offerings on the world market through this decade and beyond."
