Vestas and its recently acquired local rival NEG Micon win orders for 142 megawatts (MW)

The world's leading wind turbine maker, Denmark's Vestas Wind Systems (VWS.CO: Quote, Profile, Research), has so far been named supplier of around one third of the total planned wind-power projects in Britain this year, data from the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) showed last week.

Vestas and its recently acquired local rival NEG Micon (NEG.CO: Quote, Profile, Research) have in total won orders for 142 megawatts (MW) of capacity, around 30 percent of the total 474 MW planned wind-power projects in 2004, BWEA said. Industry sources estimate the value of Vestas's orders to be around 1.5 billion Danish crowns ($250.4 million). By 1315 GMT, shares in Vestas were 3.3 percent up at 111 crows, outperforming the Copenhagen bourse's top-20 KFX index , which was one percent higher.

Final contracts for around 160 MW have still not been signed, but Vestas and NEG are likely to increase their share. "I would imagine that Vestas would be in line for quite a few of these orders, but the details have not yet been filled in. NEG Micon is in line for one of the projects," said BWEA spokeswoman Alison Hill. U.S. GE Wind (GE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) , Germany's Nordex (NDXG.F: Quote, Profile, Research) and unlisted German company Enercon and privately owned Bonus of Denmark have won the remaining orders.

Apart from the 60 MW offshore Scroby Sands project, which Vestas announced last year and said had a value of about 740 million crowns, Vestas and NEG will supply turbines to wind farms Ardrossan, Gruach Mhor and Spurness in Scotland and Hare Hill and Holmside Hall in England, BWEA said. Earlier this week, BWEA said it expected wind mills generating 560 MW to be raised in 2005, topping analysts' forecasts. Around 82 MW of the expected 2005 capacity has already been awarded to NEG, which in December announced it had won a 1.1 billion crown order for the Kentish Flats project off the coast of Kent in southern England.