Congressman John Olver Tours Construction Site for American Superconductor's First HTS Wire Manufacturing Plant.

Business/Technology Editors

DEVENS, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 18, 2001

New First-in-the-World Facility on Schedule for High-Yield Production

in 2002

American Superconductor Corporation (Nasdaq: AMSC) reported that today Congressman John Olver (D-MA) toured the company's new high temperature superconductor (HTS) wire manufacturing facility - the first large-scale production facility in the world for commercial HTS wires - located in the Devens Commerce Center here. Superconducting wire made by the plant is expected to be used by companies around the world to create high capacity, high-efficiency power cables, motors and generators.

Construction of the new, state-of-the-art manufacturing plant and acquisition of equipment are on schedule. The company anticipates that equipment will be installed in the 355,000 square-foot facility starting this summer, qualification of the manufacturing operation will be completed in the first half of 2002, and high-yield HTS wire manufacturing will be underway in the second half of 2002.

"HTS wires produced by American Superconductor are key to meeting the country's increasing demand for electric power and improving power grid efficiency," Olver said. "HTS wires will relieve gridlock in our power networks by carrying more power through existing rights of way and enable electrical generators to produce more power for every unit of fuel consumed. HTS wires will also be used in ship propulsion motors that are smaller, lighter and cheaper to make and operate. This technology is truly revolutionary.

"I am delighted to see that American Superconductor is on schedule with the opening of the world's first commercial HTS wire manufacturing plant," Olver added. "This plant is impressive in all respects - in its size, in its use of state-of-the-art production equipment and manufacturing methodologies and, of course, in the fact that it will be producing wires that carry over 150 times the power of copper wires of the same dimensions. This operation will also create a significant number of high-quality jobs for people in the North Worcester area."

American Superconductor Chief Executive Officer Greg Yurek said the first employees for the new facility had already been hired and were being trained at company headquarters in Westborough, Mass. "The first employees will start working at the Devens manufacturing facility this summer," Yurek said. "Once we are in volume production, starting in about one year, we expect to be employing hundreds of employees here."

American Superconductor is the world leader in HTS wire manufacturing. Over the last decade, the company has produced more than 1,000 kilometers of HTS wire for development and demonstration purposes. American Superconductor currently produces HTS wire at a rate of 500 kilometers per year in its Westborough operations to meet near-term demand. Designed to meet further increases in demand over the next several years, the new manufacturing site will have a capacity of 10,000 kilometers per year, with the capability to increase annual production to 20,000 kilometers.

The company believes its HTS wire is the lowest cost, highest performance HTS wire in the world. According to industry experts, American Superconductor's standard HTS wire has twice the power density of its closest competitors.

The Devens Commerce Center, located 35 miles northwest of Boston, is a 4,400-acre former military base that is being transformed into a modern industrial and technology-intensive business park.

Technical Background

Superconductors are materials that carry large quantities of electricity with zero electrical resistance when cooled to very low, or cryogenic temperatures. While superconductors have been known for decades, until recently commercial applications were limited to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) devices. MRI devices utilize low temperature superconductor (LTS) wires. But in 1986, scientists at IBM discovered a new family of superconductor materials that operate at 5 to 20 times higher temperatures. These new materials, which are ceramic compounds, are known as high temperature superconductors (HTS). The lower cost of cooling HTS materials is expected to revolutionize large-scale commercial applications for superconducting wire in the electric power industry. New applications include high power density electric cables capable of carrying up to five times the power of an equal sized copper cable, and motors and generators that are significantly more energy efficient than conventional devices - while also being smaller and less costly to produce. American Superconductor has over 400 patents, patent applications and licenses related to the manufacture of HTS wires and the applications of superconductors to electric power applications.

American Superconductor

American Superconductor Corporation, headquartered in Westborough, Mass., was founded in 1987 and is a world leader in developing and manufacturing products utilizing superconducting materials and power electronic devices for the power infrastructure. The company's products can dramatically increase the bandwidth and reliability of power delivery networks, significantly reduce the manufacturing costs of electrical equipment such as motors and generators, lower electrical operating costs and conserve resources that are used to produce electric power. See 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.