FRANKFURT, Dec 1: Siemens expects sales at its wind power business to grow 30 per cent this fiscal year to end-September and its profit margin should reach double digits, the head of the wind business told a newspaper.

“We want to be in the top three in the industry by 2011,” Siemens’ Wind Power unit chief Andreas Nauen told German weekly Euro am Sonntag on Saturday.

Siemens does not break out separate results for its wind power business. Last month, it said it won wind turbine orders from North America worth more than $1.1 billion euros in the year to date.

Nauen said wind power sales and orders had been growing at an annual rate of more than 50 per cent and the business profit margin was more than 9 per cent last fiscal year.

He saw great opportunities in offshore wind farms. “We expect that offshore will have a breakthrough in Germany, too, next year,” he said.

Germany is one of the world’s leading players in onshore wind power but its offshore ambitions have been beset by red tape and environmental concerns.

—Reuters