GE sees 2008 wind revenue approaching $6 billion

BOSTON (Reuters) - General Electric expects revenue from its wind turbine business to approach $6 billion, a top executive said on Tuesday.

"The wind business continues to exceed our expectations," said John Rice, a vice chairman of the second-largest U.S. company by market capitalization who heads GE's infrastructure unit. "The market has determined that the economics work."

Rice said that GE now has wind turbine orders extending into 2010, past the expiration of a U.S. tax credit for new turbine construction. About two-thirds of the company's wind turbine sales are for the United States, with the balance going to the rest of the world, he said.

"We want to grow that outside the United States," Rice said.

(Reporting by Scott Malone)