Joint venture could help reduce Chinese greenhouse gas emissions

“By forming this joint venture with AlliedSignal, ZXCO will produce several thousand Amorphous Metal Transformers (AMTs) in short order for use in upgrading the electrical network in China,” said Xu Jinxin, Chairman of ZXCO. “We see this as a good opportunity to help China increase its energy efficiency and simultaneously reduce its emission of greenhouse gases.”

Since Amorphous Metal Transformers (AMTs) are more energy efficient than conventional transformers using silicon steel cores, they can reduce no-load losses by up to 80 percent. No-load losses, which occur whenever voltage is applied to the transformer, represent a major portion of the energy lost during power distribution. These energy savings can significantly reduce or defer costly investments for power generation and translate into reductions in carbon dioxide emissions created during power generation.

“China is one of our company’s important growth regions, and we are embarking on this aggressive expansion to meet the region’s rapidly growing demand for electrical distribution transformers that have amorphous metal cores,” said Larry Bossidy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AlliedSignal. “We expect to realize more than $200 million in product sales over the life of the five-year agreement. As the venture grows, we plan to build a new facility in the Hong Qiao Economic Park in Shanghai next to the ZXCO Amorphous Metal Transformer (AMT) factory.”

The potential annual benefits of AMT for China, based on full conversion to this technology over the next 15 years, are 45 billion kilowatt hours, or enough energy to power the city of Dalian for eight years. This represents 55 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions avoided due to electricity produced by coal-fired power plants, or the amount of carbon dioxide produced by 12 million automobiles.

AMTs are expected to play a leading role in meeting the State Development Planning Commission’s (SPDC) goal of reducing overall distribution losses each year over the next five years.