American Superconductor Appoints John R. Ring, Jr. General Manager of its Power Electronics Business.

Business/Technology Editors

WESTBOROUGH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 12, 2001

Expands its Operations in New Facility for Product Development,

Prototype Assembly and Test

American Superconductor Corporation (Nasdaq:AMSC), a leading global supplier of superconductor products and power electronic converters for the electric power industry, today announced the appointment of Mr. John R. (Jake) Ring Jr. as general manager of its Power Electronics business unit. The company also announced that it has expanded its business operations and moved into a new 50,000-square-foot facility in suburban Milwaukee, Wisconsin that will be used for product development and prototype assembly and test of its PowerModule(TM) power electronics converter. The PowerModule(TM) is a key component of American Superconductor's superconductor magnetic energy storage (SMES) solution, but is gaining wider market acceptance in a variety of power applications including power quality and reliability solutions, distributed and stand-by generation, and electric motor drives.

"The appointment of Jake Ring as general manager and the opening of a state-of-the-art development, assembly and test facility are key milestones in the growth of our power electronics business," said Greg Yurek, chief executive officer of American Superconductor. "Jake brings proven business leadership in the sales and marketing of sophisticated electronic systems and he will be instrumental in growing the front-end of our power electronics business. Our new facility gives us the infrastructure we now need to effectively achieve our goals in product development, final assembly and testing of the power electronic solutions we are bringing to our growing base of customers."

Prior to joining American Superconductor, Mr. Ring was vice president of marketing at Magnequench, Inc., a leading producer of high-energy permanent magnet materials and subassemblies used in a variety of industries. Prior to Magnequench, Mr. Ring worked for Emerson Electric Co., most recently as director of product management for Emerson's Liebert Corp. subsidiary, a global environmental and power protection company serving the data processing and telecommunications industries. Mr. Ring has a BS in Mathematics and Computer Science from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from the Olin School of Management, Washington University in St. Louis.

"American Superconductor has built a leading position in commercializing new technology for the electric power industry," said Mr. Ring. "Power converters are key components of 21st century power applications and our PowerModules offer OEM customers the value and flexibility they need to enhance their existing products and to bring new products to market."

Located in New Berlin, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee, American Superconductor's new Power Electronics facility provides the needed space to perform research, product development, final assembly and testing of PowerModule systems prior to shipment. "The expansion into our new facility means we will have the operational flexibility to better serve our OEM customer's system needs," continued Ring. "Now we have the high capacity electrical service, up to 4MVA of power and 24,900 volts, to thoroughly test the wide variety of solution configurations that our customers demand."

Power Electronics Applications

The PowerModule family of power converters (see http://www.amsuper.com/powerelec.htm) was initially developed by American Superconductor to meet the cost and performance requirements of the company's superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) systems (see http://www.amsuper.com/utility.htm#sag). SMES systems dramatically increase the reliability of electric power grids and provide high quality power for industrial manufacturing sites. PowerModules, key components of the SMES solution, are used as inverters to inject up to 3MW of real power and up to 20 MVA instantaneous reactive power into industrial and utility power systems. There are over 200 PowerModules currently in use in SMES systems in the U.S. and in Europe.

The high availability and reliability requirements of utilities and their customers influenced the development of the PowerModule family of programmable power converters. PowerModules set a new standard in power density, reliability and versatility. Using a modular design concept and multiple pre-programmed algorithms, PowerModules can be rapidly configured to each customer's unique system requirements, speeding their time to market and delivering higher total system value. The adaptable communications interface further enhances the customer's ability to monitor and control the unit over a variety of protocols and formats. The PowerModule design offers a self-contained, fully integrated and programmable power converter that can cost-effectively solve OEM customer needs for a variety of applications, including wind turbines, diesel gensets, fuel cells, microturbines, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and motor drive applications.

About American Superconductor

American Superconductor Corporation is a world leader in developing technologies and manufacturing products utilizing superconductor wire and power electronic converters for the electric power infrastructure. American Superconductor's products, and those sold by electrical equipment manufacturers that incorporate its products, can dramatically increase the bandwidth and reliability of power delivery grids, reduce manufacturing and operating costs, and conserve resources used to produce electric power. Founded in 1987, the company is headquartered in Westborough, Mass. For more information, visit http://www.amsuper.com.

Certain statements in this release, including statements containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "will" and similar expressions, constitute forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. There are a number of important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include the uncertainties that: the company will be able to obtain the anticipated funding from corporate and government contracts; the company will be able to successfully develop and manufacture commercial products; a robust market will develop for the company's products; and the company will secure anticipated orders. Additionally such factors include: the risk that strategic alliances and other contracts may be terminated; the risk that certain technologies utilized by the company will infringe intellectual property rights of others; the competition encountered by the company, including several large Japanese companies; the amount and timing of the company's future cash requirements and the availability of satisfactory financing sources. Reference is made to these and other factors discussed in the "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operation" section of the company's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's estimates as of November 12, 2001. While the Company anticipates that subsequent events and developments may cause the Company's estimates to change, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's estimates or views as of any date subsequent to November 12, 2001.