Devens, Mass.-based American Superconductor (Nasdaq: AMSC) has joined a growing list of cleantech firms setting up deals in India, licensing one of its wind turbine designs to Ghodawat Industries.

The agreement marks American Superconductor's first move into India, and offers the potential to see its technology spread across other countries in the region.

Ghodawat, part of the diversified Maharashtra, India-based Sanjay Ghodawat Group, is getting an exclusive license for the Windtec WT1650 wind turbine for sale to certain countries in the Middle East, Southern Asia and Africa.

American Superconductor did not disclose specific financial terms, but said that in addition to a multi-million dollar upfront license fee, it would receive a royalty payment for the first 550 WT1650 wind turbines manufactured by Ghodawat.

But American Superconductor will also be providing the guts of the machines.

"It's sort of like the Gillette model," Jason Fredette, spokesman for American Superconductor, told Cleantech.com.

"The razor is the design, and then they have to come back to us and buy the razor blades, which are the electrical systems that go into each and every one of the wind turbines."

American Superconductor has made similar deals with companies in China, South Korea, the Czech Republic and Canada.

"We've been looking at India for quite some time now," said Fredette.

Ghodawat plans to start manufacturing the Windtec 1.65 megawatt turbines in 2009.

The Indian company has been making wind turbine towers since 2004 for customers including Pune, India-based Suzlon, Denmark's Vestas Wind Systems and Germany's Enercon.

Ghodawat also owns and operates wind farms across four states in India.

Ghodawat will be going up against some major players in the industry, but there could be plenty of room for competition in the region, as India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has estimated that the country has 60 gigawatts of wind power potential.

And a recent report from the Global Wind Energy Council ranked India at No. 4 in the world in terms of total wind power capacity, growing by 28 percent in 2007 to 8 GW.

Fredette said, "Ghodawat Industries being a local player, being there to serve the local market, and of course to ship to adjacent countries, it has a good opportunity right now to capitalize and gain some market share."

India has been a boomtown for cleantech dealmaking in recent months, drawing firms from Iceland, the U.S. and elsewhere to the country's growing green industry.

Reykjavik, Iceland-based Glitnir Bank announced earlier this year that it was partnering with Noida, India's LNJ Bhilwara Group for geothermal development (see Glitnir to bring geothermal to India).

Glitnir said the venture was set up with initial capital of $10 million for its exploration phase.

Earlier this week, Massapequa Park, N.Y.-based solar installer Clear Skies Solar (OTC: CSKH) said it signed a $20 million letter of agreement with Utter Pradesh, India's Power Cube to develop photovoltaic systems (see Clear Skies Solar to develop $20M India project).

According to a recent report from the Cleantech Group-India, cleantech venture capital and private equity investment in India more than doubled last year, with investors committing $290 million in 11 cleantech deals, up from $140 million in 9 deals in 2006.

The Cleantech Group, which is Cleantech.com's parent company, said the momentum in India is expected to continue over the coming years.

For American Superconductor, there could be more than just wind on the horizon in the region.

In addition to making electrical systems, the company also manufactures products for power transmission grids, including high temperature superconductor wires, which are the next generation of energy efficient cables for electricity transmission (see AMSC's HYDRA snaps up $25M more from DHS).

American Superconductor is already working with partners in China on high temperature superconductor, or HTS, projects, and said it expects today's move to open up doors for power grid deals in India as well.

Fredette said Ghodawat has "relationships in the market that we can leverage, but we'll be looking to other companies as well, to establish new relationships there both in the wind market and in the traditional power grid market."

For the past two years, American Superconductor has been working with the Shanghai Electric Cable Research Institute on superconductor power cables in China.

Fredette said the institute would like to have a superconductor cable under the streets of Shanghai over the next two to three years.

"In India, they're not as far along on the superconductor power cable systems. But that's something down the road we'd definitely like to do."

"They have very congested cities — of course they're electricity demands are skyrocketing," he said. "So they need new solutions to bring power from the generation site to the load centers."