Vestas Wind Systems has announced it will invest $350 million in its Tianjin, China subsidiary.  This investment will position the company to meet China’s increasing hunger for wind energy.  Vestas has received several large orders from China in the past month and in the past year. As CleanTech Group LLC notes, investing in its Chinese subsidiary is smart because China is such an important and growing market for wind power:

China is a significant market for wind turbine manufacturers. The country had an installed capacity of 5.9 GW at the end of 2007, an increase of 145 percent over the previous year. China is expected to surpass Germany as the leading wind-energy country by the end of 2009.

China’s government estimates that the country has a wind potential of 250 GW onshore and 750 GW offshore.

China also has the largest wind turbine manufacturing industry in the world, with more than 40 wind-component manufacturers including Goldwind, Sinovel Wind, Dongfang, Windey and Sewind. China’s wind equipment market is worth about $8.59 billion annually.