CAIRO, March 19 (Reuters) - Engineering group Siemens SIEGn.DE has taken another step towards becoming one of the world's top three wind turbine makers by 2012 by installing a 250-megawatt renewable energy plant in Egypt's Gulf of Suez on the Red Sea coast.

Egypt’s state news agency quoted Emad Ghali, head of Siemens’s renewable energy, oil and gas operations, as saying Egypt has huge potential in generating renewable energy, but has not used it optimally.

The agency’s report gave no further details on the project.

Until recently Germany-based Siemens has ranked as the world's sixth biggest manufacturer of wind turbines in terms of market share, behind Denmark's Vestas VWS.CO, U.S. General Electric GE.N, Spain's Gamesa GAM.MC, Germany's Enercon and India's Suzlon SUZL.BO.

Siemens, which is Europe’s biggest engineering conglomerate, said last week it was on track towards becoming one of the world’s top three wind turbine makers by 2012. [ID:nLDE62B0OD]

Research shows that the world market for wind turbine installations was worth about 45 billion euros ($61.25 billion) in 2009 and that global installed capacity will more than double to 340 gigawatts by 2013.

Egypt, an oil and gas producer, has been developing wind power along its eastern Red Sea coast. It has wind farms at Zafarana and Hurghada in the area, and has so far installed capacity of 430 megawatts of wind energy.

Officials say Egypt’s combined oil and gas reserves will last the most populous Arab country roughly three decades, encouraging a shift to alternative energy sources, including wind, solar and nuclear.

The North African country expects to see its wind power capacity reach 7,200 megawatts by 2020 and is already boosting the capacity to 550 megawatts by May.

Egypt also aims to generate 12 percent of its power from wind farms out of a total of 20 percent from renewable sources by 2020 and is seeking to attract $110 billion in investments in its energy sector by 2027. [ID:nLDE5BD176]

Its electricity ministry said in November it qualified 10 firms to build a 250-megawatt wind farm on its east coast, the country’s first privately owned wind farm. [nL9384811] ($1=.7346 EURO) (Writing by Sherine El Madany; Editing by Rupert Winchester)