Under the wind turbine licence with AMSC, Inox gains the right to manufacture and sell the wind turbines globally. Inox plans to begin series production of the 2 MW wind turbines in 2010. AMSC will receive an upfront license fee as well as royalty payments.

“We view India as a tremendous growth opportunity for all AMSC products,” says Greg Yurek, Founder and CEO of AMSC. “Similar to our strategy in China, we have entered India through the wind energy market, which not only provides us with a growing stream of revenue, but also provides a concrete rationale to establish our in-country base of operations and contacts. From this base, we expect to address not only the wind market, but also the huge power grid market opportunity in India for our reactive compensation and superconductor products.”

AMSC will help Inox to localise the supply of key wind turbine components, establish its manufacturing line, and build and test Inox’s first prototype wind turbines. AMSC will also provide the electrical systems for the 2 MW wind turbines manufactured by Inox.

Deepak Asher, Director of Inox Wind Ltd, says: “We expect to make major investments in our wind energy business in the coming years, and we look forward to forging a close, long-term relationship with AMSC as we grow our manufacturing operations.”

Inox is AMSC’s second wind turbine manufacturing customer in India. In 2008, AMSC Windtec licensed a 1.65 MW wind turbine design to Ghodawat Industries (India) Pvt Ltd. Ghodawat plans to enter into commercial production of these wind turbines by the end of 2009.

India was ranked as the world’s fifth largest wind power market at the end of 2008 by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), with nearly 10 GW of capacity. The Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturers Association estimates that the potential for wind development in India is approximately 65 to 70 GW.