DOE Awards $4.5 Million to Supercondcutor Technology Inc. and Partners to Improve HTS Wire for Next Generation Machines

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 29, 2016 -- Superconductor Technologies Inc. (STI) (SCON) has been selected as prime recipient of the $4.5 million program award provided by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), on behalf of the Advanced Manufacturing Office, for its Next Generation Electric Machines (NGEM) program. Collaborating with STI is TECO-Westinghouse Motor Company (TWMC), an industry leading manufacturer of electric generators and motors, and renowned academic institutions Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and University of North Texas (UNT).  The combined team will focus on improving the manufacturing process of superconductive wires to improve performance and yield while reducing cost at high enough temperatures where nitrogen can be used as the cryogenic fluid.

“Advancing these enabling technologies has the potential to boost the competitiveness of American manufacturers and take the development of more efficient electric machines a giant step further,” said Mark Johnson, director of the EERE Advanced Manufacturing Office. “These technology R&D projects aim to significantly improve industrial motors for manufacturing, helping companies who use these motors in manufacturing save energy and money over the long run.”

 

“We believe that being selected first by our esteemed proposal partners and then winning the DOE award recognizes STI’s unique HTS manufacturing process and our ability to achieve high performance, cost efficiencies and commercial scale capacity,” stated STI’s president and chief executive officer Jeff Quiram. “In addition, the significant wire improvement goals for this program will address our customers’ desire for increased infield magnetic performance and high performance/low cost wire for many applications, such as motors, generators, magnets, power cables and MRI machines. STI expects to transition from R&D to full scale production of motor- and generator-optimized wire during the three-year project plan, which will enable our superconducting technology to be introduced into Next Generation Electrical Machines utilizing high performance/low cost HTS wire."

 

TWMC’s president Pat Rogers stated, “TWMC recognized the immense value of superconductor technology for high-power electric machines early, and we are committed to their commercialization. We look forward to collaborating to develop the transformational technology needed to achieve commercial viability of high power superconducting next-generation electric machines.”

 

MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center Assistant Director Joseph V. Minervini stated, “STI’s goal of high performance at low cost can be a game changer for a wide range of applications, not only at temperatures near liquid nitrogen, but also at lower temperatures.”

 

UNT’s Assistant Professor Materials and Science Engineering Dr. Marcus L. Young stated, “By bringing together university knowledge and capabilities from MIT and UNT with STI, a world class manufacturer of superconducting materials, and TWMC, the end user and device maker with over 100 years of experience in motor design and application, the full range of research and development to product manufacturing and wide scale commercialization of superconducting materials will be achieved.”

 

About Superconductor Technologies Inc. (STI)

Superconductor Technologies Inc. is a global leader in superconducting innovation. Its Conductus® superconducting wire platform offers high performance, cost-effective and scalable superconducting wire. With 100 times the current carrying capacity of conventional copper and aluminum, superconducting wire offers zero resistance with extreme high current density. This provides a significant benefit for electric power transmission and also enables much smaller or more powerful magnets for motors, generators, energy storage and medical equipment. Since 1987, STI has led innovation in HTS materials, developing more than 100 patents as well as proprietary trade secrets and manufacturing expertise. For more than 20 years STI utilized its unique HTS manufacturing process for solutions to maximize capacity utilization and coverage for Tier 1 telecommunications operators. Headquartered in Austin, TX, Superconductor Technologies Inc.'s common stock is listed on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the ticker symbol “SCON.” For more information about STI, please visit http://www.suptech.com.

 

Safe Harbor Statement

Statements in this press release regarding our business that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are inherently subject to uncertainties and other factors, which could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. These factors and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: our limited cash and a history of losses; our need to materially grow our revenues from commercial operations and/or to raise additional capital (which financing may not be available on acceptable terms or at all) in the very near future, before cash reserves are depleted (which reserves are expected to be sufficient into the first quarter of 2017), to implement our current business plan and maintain our viability; the performance and use of our equipment to produce wire in accordance with our timetable; overcoming technical challenges in attaining milestones to develop and manufacture commercial lengths of our HTS wire; the possibility of delays in customer evaluation and acceptance of our HTS wire; the limited number of potential customers and customer pressures on the selling prices of our products; the limited number of suppliers for some of our components and our HTS wire; there being no significant backlog from quarter to quarter; our market being characterized by rapidly advancing technology; the impact of competitive products, technologies and pricing; manufacturing capacity constraints and difficulties; the impact of any financing activity on the level of our stock price; the dilutive impact of any issuances of securities to raise capital; the steps required to maintain the listing of our common stock with a U.S. national securities exchange and the impact on the liquidity and trading price of our common stock if we fail to maintain such listing; the cost and uncertainty from compliance with environmental regulations; and local, regional, and national and international economic conditions and events and the impact they may have on us and our customers.

 

Forward-looking statements can be affected by many other factors, including, those described in the "Business" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" sections of STI's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 and in STI's other public filings. These documents are available online at STI's website, www.suptech.com, or through the SEC's website, www.sec.gov. Forward-looking statements are based on information presently available to senior management, and STI has not assumed any duty to update any forward-looking statements.

 

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