DALLAS (AP) -- American Superconductor, which makes equipment for power generators and utilities, and Chinese wind turbine manufacturer Sinovel Wind Group are expanding their partnership to include additional wind turbine designs for onshore and offshore markets.
Under the agreement announced Tuesday, American Superconductor's 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 the turbines by the end of 2012. It will buy core electrical components from AMSC for the machines.
The relationship between AMSC Windtec and Sinovel goes back to 2005. Since then, AMSC has provided core electrical components for Sinovel's 1.5 megawatt wind turbines and engineering support services and power electronics for the 3 megawatt and 5 megawatt wind turbines developed by Sinovel and AMSC Windtec.
Sinovel Wind Group Co. Ltd., based in Beijing, began shipping 3 megawatt wind turbines for onshore and offshore markets in 2009.
The agreement was announced at an American Wind Energy Association conference in Dallas.
American Superconductor Corp. is based in Devens, Mass.
