"The biggest markets in the next decade will probably be India and China in particular," said Achim Hoehne, a Sydney-based manager at the PB Power unit of engineering services company Parsons Brinckerhoff. "Australia had a good market until about a year ago. Since then companies are looking for other opportunities."

A venture partly owned by Hong Kong's CLP Holdings this year scrapped more than US$400 million (HK$3.12 billion) of projects in Australia, where government renewable- energy quotas have almost been met, in favor of China and India.

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Vestas Wind, the world's biggest wind-turbine maker, and India's Suzlon Energy - Asia's largest - are expanding in China.

Global oil prices have stayed above US$50 a barrel for 15 months, prompting a global scramble to develop alternative energy sources. China, which gets two thirds of its power from coal, is also trying to cut pollution.

China added almost 500 megawatts of wind-energy capacity in 2005, more than double the previous year, a jump of 66 percent to 1,260 megawatts, according to the Global Wind Energy Council. That compares with growth of 11 percent in Germany, the world's largest wind market, where capacity reached 18,428 megawatts, the Brussels-based council said. China may add 2,000 megawatts of capacity this year, it estimates.

That's making the market more attractive than countries such as Australia, where investments in wind projects have slowed as a government target for renewable energy use is reached.

China has a target of 5,000 megawatts of wind capacity by 2010 and a goal of 30,000 megawatts by 2020, said Andrew Richards, president of the Australian Wind Energy Association. China National Offshore Corp, the country's third-largest oil company, said last month it was studying building offshore wind farms.

"Domestic wind-power equipment is competitive compared with imported gear because the production base is nearby and it costs less to repair and maintain the equipment," said He Lixin, deputy chief of the energy department at the Xinjiang Development and Reform Commission, which overseas China's biggest wind farm.

Vestas, based in Randers, Denmark, opened a factory in northeast China in June, while Repower Systems, a German rival, signed a contract earlier this month to take control of a Chinese wind-turbine manufacturing venture.

Power generation from renewable sources, while more expensive than coal-fired production, has the advantage of lower carbon dioxide emissions. China, the world's biggest sulfur dioxide polluter, plans to set up a carbon emissions exchange by year end to encourage cleaner power generation.

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