Friday, October 10, 2008

American Superconductor to Supply Wind Turbine Designs in Multi-Million-Dollar Contract

American Superconductor Corporation, a leading energy technologies company, announced today that it has signed a multi-million-dollar contract to provide wind turbine designs to China's XJ Group Corporation (XJ Group).

Under the terms of the contract, AMSC's wholly owned AMSC Windtec™ subsidiary will provide XJ Group with designs for its WT2000df, a 2 megawatt (MW) doubly fed induction wind turbine. In addition to the upfront fee, AMSC also expects to provide core electrical components for the 2 MW wind turbines manufactured by XJ Group.

Founded in 1970 and based in the city of Xuchang in the Henan province of China, XJ Group is one of China's largest manufacturers of power equipment and transmission and distribution technologies for the electric utility market. The company's advanced technologies and services are aimed at improving the performance and efficiency of its customers' operations. XJ Group employs more than 5,000 people worldwide and operates facilities in 30 countries globally, including 40 locations throughout China.

"The wind power market in China and around the world continues to expand at a dramatic rate," said Li Fusheng, President of XJ Group. "We selected AMSC Windtec because of its proven turbine designs, its ability to help us localize our supply chain and its high-performance wind turbine electrical systems. In addition to utilizing standard AMSC Windtec designs for the WT2000df, AMSC Windtec and XJ Group will jointly adapt the turbine for specific environmental and wind conditions, such as the low average wind speeds, low air density and severe climates encountered in certain regions of China. With our years of expertise and relationships in the electric utility industry, we plan to become a major participant in the wind power industry."

While XJ Group initially expects to produce wind turbines for the Chinese market, the company has the right to sell the WT2000df worldwide. XJ Group plans to have its first prototypes installed and commissioned by the end of 2009 and expects to begin shipping wind turbines to customers in 2010.

"XJ Group is a well established manufacturer and supplier of products and services for the Chinese electric utility industry," said Greg Yurek, founder and chief executive officer of AMSC. "XJ Group will be a strong partner to address the growing needs for high power, high efficiency wind turbines in China and around the world. We look forward to working with them to bring their first wind turbines to market."

Recent reports have indicated that China may increase its wind power capacity from 6 gigawatts at the end of 2007 to 100 gigawatts by 2020. This type of expansion would require approximately 47,000 2 MW wind turbines over a 12-year timeframe.

China Government Subsidizes R&D On Wind Power

August 25, 2008

The Chinese Ministry of Finance has promulgated its "Interim Procedures For Management Of Wind Power Generation Equipment Industrialization Special Funds".

This says that for the first 50 wind power units from manufacturers that meet the relevant criteria, subsidies of CNY600 per kilowatt will be granted by Ministry of Finance. This is said to be equivalent to 10% of the cost.

According to an official of Chinese Wind Energy Association t is of great importance to promote the domestic manufacturing of wind power equipment, particularly core technologies.

According to the Interim Procedures, the special funds should be used for new product research and development of wind power equipment; the beneficiaries should be Chinese-funded or Chinese holding enterprises focusing on the manufacture of wind power equipment including finished machines, vanes, gear cases, generators, convertors, and bearings.

Manufacturers that intend to apply for the subsidy should meet six criteria including independent intellectual property rights and equipment brands.

The official from CWEA also said the funds are mainly aimed at megawatt-class wind power units for these are now the mainstream in the international market. Yet there are only a few independent megawatt-class wind power unit manufacturers in China. The Interim Procedures also mention bearings and convertors — areas in which China's wind power industry is weak and mainly depends on imported equipment.

Liaoning's Largest Wind Power Farm Under Construction

September 4, 2008

Dalian Tuoshan Wind Power Farm, the largest wind power farm in Liaoning Province, is being built with an investment of CNY2.8 billion by China Power Investment Corporation.

The wind power farm is located in Tuoshan, Wafangdian, Dalian, and occupies an area of 62 square kilometers. The investment for phase I is CNY530 million and 33 wind power units, each with a capacity of 1,500 kilowatts, will be put into operation in December 2009.

Tuoshan Wind Power Farm will have a total capacity of 300,000 kilowatts — producing 700 million kilowatt-hours annually.

Currently Inner Mongolia has the most wind power units in China, with Jilin and Liaoning ranking second and third respectively.

Suzlon Green Power Commits USD5 Billion To Renewable Energy In China And India

September 30, 2008

Suzlon Green Power, an enterprise wholly owned by India's Tanti family, announced at the 2008 Clinton Global Initiative that it will bring 3,500 megawatts of electricity to nearly 10 million people.

Suzlon pledged USD5 billion in green energy assets over five years, primarily in India and China. Of the USD5 billion total project value, Suzlon Green Power will provide approximately USD1.5 billion in equity.

"The urgent global need for clean energy compelled me to dramatically expand my family's business holdings," said Tulsi R. Tanti, who is best known as the founder of the wind-turbine company, Suzlon Energy, based in India. "Our flagship business Suzlon Energy continues to focus on developing wind power solutions, offering wind turbines to the global market. On the other hand, we now commit to developing and owning green power assets through Suzlon Green Power, which will bring energy where it is needed most."

Tanti's efforts are global, with a majority of Suzlon Green Power's projects to be located in India and China, two areas with burgeoning energy needs. The company estimates that its projects will create 1,000 jobs directly and many times more indirectly, and will reduce emissions by the equivalent of seven million tons of CO2 a year.

The International Energy Agency estimates that the world's energy needs will increase by more than 50 percent by 2030, and both China and India's energy use is set to double between 2005 and 2030. Suzlon, with other global organizations, is exploring the most efficient renewable energy sources that can be scaled-up to meet this exponentially growing demand for energy.

A-Power Contracts For Wind Turbines With China National Automation Control System

October 10, 2008

Shenyang-based A-Power Energy Generation Systems has signed its second sales contract with China National Automation Control System Corporation for the sale of 50 2.7 MW wind turbines.
This is in addition to the previously announced contract with CACS for five 2.7MW units. These units are expected to be delivered by July, 2009.

These 2.7MW wind turbines will be produced at A-Power's new wind turbine production facility in Shenyang, China with components the company has secured from Fuhrlander AG and other European wind power component suppliers, which will begin arriving in November. This facility consists of two production lines with a designed annual capacity of 300 units of 2.7MW wind turbines and 420 units of 750kW wind turbines, totaling over 1.1GW in annual output.

CACS, a subsidiary of China National Machinery & Equipment Group, has been a leading provider of power generation solutions to both China and the international markets since 1981. A-Power will supply wind turbines to CACS' wind farm projects in Gansu province and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

KYOCERA (Tianjin) Solar Energy to build 240MW solar cell production project

2008-10-8

KYOCERA (Tianjin) Solar Energy signed investment agreement to expand the solar cell production. The total investment is 36,500,000 USD, and the new production project will have 240MW solar cell production capacity.

The new project will be started in December, and completed in January 2010, and it will begin to produce solar cell in March 2010.

China Sinocome signed amorphous silicon solar cell production investment agreement

October 8th China Sinocome signed amorphous silicon solar cell production investment agreement with Sichuan government, and the total investment is 2 billion RMB, and the first phase project will be 100MW, and Sinocome plans to expand the production capacity to 500MW in future.

Shanghai Electric Group to see shares in Shanghai Topsolar Green Energy

Shanghai Electric Group Holding Co., Ltd plans to sell 36% share in Shanghai Topsolar Green Energy Co., Ltd at Shanghai United Assets and Equity Exchange at the price of 138,600,000 RMB.

At present Shanghai Electric Group Holding Co., Ltd is the biggest share holder of Shanghai Topsolar Green Energy Co., Ltd with share of 61.35%.

Canadian Solar Signs 2009 Sales Contract with Systaic of Germany and Announces European Sales to Date

TORONTO, Oct 09, 2008 /Xinhua-PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Canadian Solar Inc. ("the Company", "CSI" or "we") today announced that it has signed a sales contract with Systaic AG of Germany. Systaic will purchase 60 MW of regular solar modules for delivery in 2009. Systaic has been a customer of CSI since the beginning of 2008.

To date, CSI's sales contracts in Europe stipulate minimum shipments of approximately 226 MW. These contracts have options for up to an additional 80 MW of purchases for total European sales in the range of 226 - 306 MW out of our planned capacity of 500 - 550 MW. All these contracts were signed in the past month and primarily reflect the demand from large, long-standing customers in Germany. We have also signed sales contracts in Italy, the Czech Republic, Spain, and France, and are on track to increase sales in these countries. We are satisfied with the order booking level we achieved so far and predict it to increase significantly once our many on-going discussions with Spanish and Italian customers conclude in the next a couple of months. Our North American and Asian sales are also on track, which the Company will issue separate update later this Fall.

Prices reflect market conditions and are in principle fixed for the first two quarters. Our cost-effective e-Modules are selling at a small discount to the regular high-efficiency polysilicon module. The order books for both products are strong. Our balanced product portfolio provides a wide market coverage that is unique in the solar industry.

Chairman and CEO Shawn Qu remarked: "We are very pleased to announce the extension of our strategic relationship with Systaic. This marks the tenth 2009 sales contract we have signed in the past month. Systaic is a large and well-known systems integrator based in Germany with significant design capabilities and projects throughout Europe."

Shawn Qu continues: "The next-year order booking ratio we achieved in September is the highest in the Company's history. This demonstrates the commitment and the confidence of both CSI and our customers in the PV industry and the solar energy market. We are making rapid progress towards meeting our 2009 sales contract objectives. Similarly our customers are successfully developing and financing viable projects for 2009 in spite of a turbulent environment; this contract is a material milestone towards achieving our goals."

CSI will be exhibiting at Solar Power International 2008 in San Diego from October 14th to October 16th (booth 1939) and will present at the investor conferences sponsored by Piper Jaffrey and Lazard Capital.

About Canadian Solar Inc. (Nasdaq: CSIQ)

Founded in 2001, Canadian Solar Inc. (CSI) is a vertically integrated manufacturer of solar cell, solar module and custom-designed solar application products serving customers worldwide. CSI is incorporated in Canada and conducts all of its manufacturing operations in China. Backed by years of experience and knowledge in the solar power market and the silicon industry, CSI has become a major global provider of solar power products for a wide range of applications. For more information, please visit http://www.csisolar.com .

About Systaic AG

Due to the consequent implementation of its strategy, Systaic AG belongs to the fastest growing companies in the sector of renewable energies in Europe. The SYSTAIC group produces and markets Europe-wide a new generation of solar systems that differs significantly from the systems currently available on the market. The product portfolio is enhanced by the offer of comprehensive services. The patent-pending integrated system solutions for buildings are highly flexible regarding their design and are offered together with a yield guarantee for over 24 years.