| Type | Public (NASDAQ: AMSC) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Electric power infrastructure |
| Founded | 1987[1] |
| Headquarters | Devens, MA, U.S. |
| Key people | Daniel P. McGahn, President & CEO |
| Revenue | $316 million (2010)[2] |
| Net income | $16 million (2010) |
| Total assets | $400 million (2010) |
| Website | www.amsc.com |
American Superconductor (AMSC) is an American energy technologies company based in Devens, Massachusetts specializing in the design and manufacture of power systems and superconducting wire.[3] It owns AMSC Windtech in Klagenfurt, Austria.
Contents |
American Superconductor installed a test of a superconducting electric power transmission power cable in the Detroit Edison Frisbee substation in 2001.[4][5][6]
The world's first production superconducting transmission power cable, the Holbrook Superconductor Project, was commissioned in late June 2008. The suburban Long Island electrical substation is fed by about 99 miles of superconductor wire manufactured by American Superconductor, installed underground and chilled with liquid nitrogen to minimize power loss in the transmission lines.[7]
American Superconductor was chosen as a supplier for the Tres Amigas Project, the United States’ first renewable energy market hub.[8] The Tres Amigas renewable energy market hub will be a multi-mile, triangular electricity pathway of Superconductor Electricity Pipelines capable of transferring and balancing many gigawatts of power between three U.S. power grids (the Eastern Interconnection, the Western Interconnection and the Texas Interconnection). Unlike traditional powerlines, it will transfer power as DC instead of AC current. It will be located in Clovis, New Mexico.
In 2009, the Department of Energy announced that they would provide $4.8M to AMSC for further development of superconducting electrical cables.[3]
AMSC will sell three million meters of wire to allow LS Cable to build 10–15 miles of superconducting cabling for the grid. This represents an order of magnitude increase over the size of the current largest installation, at Long Island Power. [9]
AMSC has demonstrated a 36.5 MW (49,000 horsepower) High-temperature superconductor (HTS) electric motor for the United States Navy, and is developing a similar 10MW wind turbine generator through its wholly owned Austria-based subsidiary AMSC Windtech. It operates at 30-40 Kelvin, and the cooling system uses 40 kW.[10]