NEW DELHI: Siemens AG, Germany’s biggest engineering company, plans to double its annual investment in India by making products including wind turbines to tap into demand for cleaner power in Asia’s third-largest economy.

Munich-based Siemens plans to invest Rs 1,600 crore ($346 million) over three years in the South Asian nation, a third of which will go to making wind turbines, Armin Bruck, managing director of the company’s India unit, told reporters in New Delhi today.

Siemens, whose products range from medical devices to turbines, is expanding into renewable-energy equipment to benefit from surging demand for clean power. The company has almost 7 billion euros ($9.76 billion) in orders for wind equipment.

“We are taking advantage of India’s growth opportunity,” Peter Loescher, president and chief executive, told reporters.

The company plans to sell the wind turbines in the local market, the first of which should be delivered by 2012. It expects to eventually produce turbines to generate 500 megawatts of electricity, Bruck said, without specifying a time frame.

Siemens is looking at sites in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu states for its turbine plant, Bruck said.

India aims to nearly double power generation capacity in the next seven years to reduce blackouts. As the world’s fourth- largest producer of greenhouse gases, it wants to generate an increasing share of power from renewable sources and plans to add 10,500 megawatts of wind capacity in the five years ending March 2012.

India’s total installed capacity was 156,092 megawatts as of Dec 31, according to the Central Electricity Authority.