GE Mulls Offshore Wind JV Adwen

General Electric is in talks with the French state and several companies about acquiring Areva-Gamesa's offshore wind joint venture Adwen, GE chief Jeff Immelt told French daily Le Figaro.

GE has contracts to build 1,500 megawatts of offshore wind on the French coast for utility EDF following the U.S. company's purchase of energy assets from Alstom last year. These are due to be built by 2019.

Asked whether GE was interested in acquiring Adwen, Immelt said France deserved a strong offshore wind industry.

"Being bigger would be useful for us. Talks are underway with different parties: Siemens (SIEMENS.NS), Areva, Gamesa, us and the French state," he said.

Adwen also has contracts to build 1,500 MW of offshore wind on the French coast for utilities Engie and Iberdrola (IBE.MC) .

Siemens is negotiating a tie-up with Spanish renewable energy group Gamesa and has not made clear whether it wants to buy out Areva's stake in Adwen.

The German company is already the dominant player in EU offshore wind and buying Adwen would push its market share close to 70 percent.

GE is a small player in offshore wind in Europe and buying Adwen would make it a third biggest group in that market. But in France, GE would become the only major player in offshore wind.

At the end of 2015, Siemens had 63.5 percent of Europe's installed offshore wind capacity, followed by MHI Vestas with 18.5 pct. Adwen accounted for just 5.7 pct of installed capacity.

Last month, French-based GE renewables head Jerome Pecresse said GE wanted to become a major player in the offshore wind industry and was interested in buying Adwen.

Reporting by Geert De Clercq