GE Ramps up Offshore Wind Game, eyes Takeover

General Electric wants to become a major player in the offshore wind industry and is interested in buying the Areva-Gamesa offshore joint venture Adwen, GE's new head of renewables said on Tuesday.

Following its takeover of the energy assets of the French group Alstom, GE in November 2015 created a global renewable energy business unit with sales of 9 billion euros ($10.42 billion), staff of 13,000, and its headquarters in France.

The resulting enlarged unit has built about 25 percent of the world's installed base of hydropower and more than 20 percent of global onshore wind capacity, but has virtually no presence in the capital-intensive offshore business, which GE had always steered clear of.

"We have the ambition to become one of the three major players in the offshore wind market," GE renewables head Jerome Pecresse told reporters in Paris on Tuesday.

He added that it was too soon to discuss a market share target. Germany's Siemens (SIEMENS.NS) is European market leader for offshore wind with 63.5 percent of installed capacity in Europe at the end 2015, followed by MHI Vestas with 18.5 pct. ($1 = 0.8639 euros) (Reporting by Geert De Clercq