The new facility with an investment of 60 million US dollars in Tianjin's Hi-Tech Industrial Park will manufacture wind energy turbine generator (WTG) and integrate major WTG components like rotor blades, generators, nacelles and control panels.

"We expect to hold a grand opening of our factory in Tianjin before the Chinese Lunar New Year," Chief Representative Officer of SEL in Beijing, Paulo Fernando Soares told PTI here.

The Lunar New Year falls on February 18 this year.

The Suzlon facility in Tianjin which at 250,000 square metres will be Suzlon's largest manufacturing facility to date and one of the largest investment made by an Indian company in China.

"It is a significant move by an Indian company in China," he said.

"We are doing fine in China," he said pointing out that Suzlon has already sold 25 turbines in China even before the company's state-of-the-art facility is commissioned.

Out of the 25 turbines, six of them have already been commissioned in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, he said. "We did not want to wait till our own facility was set up. So we rented space and manufactured turbines and other related equipments in China," he said.

Wind power is becoming a very visible sector in China. China's wind power market more than doubled from 200 MW in 2005 to 500 MW in 2006, he said, adding that in 2007 the capacity of the sector could reach up to 1,500 MW.

Asked why Suzlon chose Tianjin as its base in China, Soares said the local government offered excellent facilities and polices to set up operations in the Hi-Tech Industrial Park.

Moreover, Tianjin is close to Beijing, has a big port also close to the wind energy producing regions, he said.

The plant in Tianjin will serve only the Chinese market as per current plans, he said noting that the Chinese wind energy market is expected to boom with government support.

"The wind power market in China has been very active and our decision to set up a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in China is timely," he said.

"We are confident of becoming a major player in the wind energy sector, especially since the Chinese government is going all out to encourage renewable sources of energy," he said.

China is already the world's sixth largest wind energy market in the world after Germany, Spain, United States, India and Denmark.