Nuremberg investment

is investing €180m (£162m) in its new wind-turbine gearbox plant in Nuremberg - an investment that is expected to fund operations up to 2013.

The facility is the second Bosch Rexroth manufacturing plant for large wind-turbine gearboxes in Germany.

‘With this new plant for the manufacture of large gearboxes, we are continuing our investments in the promising market for renewable energies,’ said Franz Fehrenbach, chairman of the board of management of Robert Bosch. ‘In the medium-to-long term, the wind-power market has good potential for growth and, even when times are difficult, we expand our activities in markets that offer a wealth of opportunities.’

The plant, which covers the surface of five football pitches, has the potential to manufacture 300 large gearboxes for the latest generation of multi-megawatt turbines in 2009.

The company acknowledged that business may be difficult in the short term as the worldwide recession takes its toll on the wind-power industry.