The sales provide Sinovel with much-needed exposure in the world’s second-largest wind-energy market, where it lags behind Chinese rivals Goldwind, Sany and Guodian United Power.

The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) says its turbine started generating electricity at a sewer pumping station in the Boston neighbourhood of Charlestown on 18 October.

MWRA communications director Ria Convery says the agency used $4.7m from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to buy the turbine, and an installation contract was awarded to Solaya, which chose Sinovel, partly because the electrical control systems were made by Massachusetts-based AMSC.

MWRA