American Superconductor Corp. (AMSC; Devens, Massachusetts, U.S.) has received orders for its D-VAR grid interconnection solution for two additional wind farms in the United States and Canada. The two wind farms will provide well over 200 MW of power for the North American market. The D-VAR systems are to be delivered to the wind farms by the end of 2008.

AMSC's proprietary D-VAR systems enable wind farm developers to meet the requirements for interconnection of wind farms to power grids — the pathway for wind-generated electricity to customers.

With these new orders, AMSC's D-VAR solution will now serve 20 wind farms in North America and a total of 35 wind farms worldwide. Including AMSC's core electrical components that it sells to manufacturers of wind turbines, with these new orders, AMSC products will be serving approximately 7100 MW (7.1 GW) of wind power — an increase of 120% from one year ago. Seven gigawatts represents more than 7% of wind-generated electricity worldwide as of Dec. 31, 2007, according to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).

GWEC's Global Wind 2007 Report, issued in April 2008, said wind-power capacity grew 27% worldwide in 2007 to more than 94 GW. Wind-power capacity in the United States and Canada grew by 45% and 26%, respectively, in 2007.