American Superconductor has taken over Finnish power electronics company 'The Switch' in a Euro 190 million deal.
The Switch specialises in supplying megawatt-class permanent magnet generator and full-power converter packages designed to process power from sources such as wind and solar.
AMSC's growth in recent years has primarily been driven primarily by the sale of wind turbine core electrical components and full wind turbine electrical control systems (ECS) to AMSC subsidiary Windtec licensees and strategic partners. The Switch provides an existing channel for power electronics and control system sales to other global wind turbine manufacturers, focusing on the production of power converter systems (PCS), which are a subsystem of full wind turbine control systems. With this marriage of technologies, AMSC expects to enhance the performance and reduce the cost of its PCS and ECS offerings. The Switch currently offers PCS's with power ratings ranging from 1 megawatt (MW) to 6 MW.
The Switch also opens up a new market opportunity exceeding US$1 billion annually with its portfolio of proprietary permanent magnet generators (PMG), a type of generator now utilised in an increasing number of both geared and direct drive wind turbines. These PMG systems, already used by several companies in Europe, the USA and Asia, will extend the technology portfolio currently available from AMSC. The company also expects to exploit The Switch's background in advanced synchronous generators to commercialise superconductor generators for its direct drive SeaTitan wind turbines.
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