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AMSC Establishes China Division

American Superconductor Corp (NASDAQ: AMSC) has formed the division “AMSC China” to serve the growing wind energy, power grid and industrial markets in China. The company recently received an enterprise business license from the Chinese government to form a Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise in Suzhou National New and Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone (SND), located 80 kilometers west of Shanghai. The business license allows for domestic manufacturing and sales of AMSC’s power electronics and superconductor products. AMSC also has expanded its sales and field service office in Beijing to support and grow its business in China and the broader Asia-Pacific region. “With its rapidly growing economy and increasing energy demands, China has become a key target market for AMSC in recent years,” said Greg Yurek, AMSC CEO. “Today, approximately half our revenues are coming from the Asia-Pacific region, with China accounting for the largest fraction of those sales. By serving these markets locally, we believe we will foster stronger ties with our current customers and more rapidly develop new customers in the region. We also expect to be able to reduce costs for standard products like our PowerModule” power converters by locally sourcing, assembling and testing certain non-proprietary components.” AMSC’s PowerModule […]

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Report: Climate Change Could Affect Renewable Energy Sector

A report by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program points to a problem rarely discussed – climate change could negatively affect the renewable energy sector. The report suggests renewable energy, which depends directly on natural resources such as water, wind and sunlight, are likely to be more sensitive to climate variability than fossil or nuclear energy sources. “Even modest impacts in key resource areas could substantially impact the cost competitiveness of these technologies due to changes in electricity production and impede the planning and financing of new wind and solar projects due to increased variability of the resource.” “Renewable energy production is highly susceptible to localized and regional changes in the resource base; as a result, the greater uncertainties on regional impacts under current climate change modelling pose a significant challenge in evaluating medium to long-term impacts on renewable energy production,” it notes. “Of the two largest U.S. renewable energy sources, hydroelectric power generation, can be expected to be directly and significantly affected by climate change, while biomass power and fuel production impacts are less certain in the short term,” it notes. “The impact on hydroelectric production will vary by region, with potential for production decreases in key areas such […]

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Study Shows Organic Food is More Nutritious

Preliminary findings from a four-year European Union (EU) study indicate that key organic foods – fruits, vegetables, milk – are more nutritional than their non-organic counterparts. “This study may be the breakthrough that helps prove what many in the organic sector believe to be true about food grown using organic practices,” said Caren Wilcox, Organic Trade Association Executive Director. The study concludes that organic fruit and vegetables have up to 40% more antioxidants than conventionally grown produce, and have higher levels of beneficial minerals such as iron and zinc. Organic milk contains 60-80% more antioxidants than conventionally produced milk in the summer, and 50-60% higher levels in the winter. Organic milk also contains higher levels of vitamin E. The research team led by Professor Leifert has been raising fruits, vegetables and cows both organically and non-organically on sites on a 725-acre farm near Newcastle University. The research is scheduled to run for an additional year. In announcing the preliminary results, Professor Leifert said such benefits suggest that eating organic food would be equivalent to eating an extra portion of fruit and vegetables a day. The study is part of the EU-funded Quality Low Input Food (QLIF) Project. The Project is […]

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