UPDATE 1-Denmark's Vestas plans UK wind turbine facility

LONDON, May 11 (Reuters) - Danish wind turbine maker Vestas will build a manufacturing facility in southeast England, provided enough orders materialise for a new, massive offshore wind turbine, the company said on Wednesday.

The company recently launched a 7-megawatt turbine, purpose-designed to capture powerful offshore winds and economies of scale.

Britain has ambitious plans to deploy turbines around its extensive coastline, with as much as 32 gigawatts (GW) in a project pipeline. Britain is far behind a binding, European Union target to get more energy from renewable sources by 2020.

'The UK represents the world's largest offshore wind market and as such has a massive offshore project pipeline,' Vestas said in a statement, adding the mooted project would create more than 2,000 jobs directly and indirectly.

The company has signed an option to lease land to build a factory in the Port of Sheerness, Kent.

'It is evident that we don't just jump head first into an investment of this size. We need to make sure it makes sense business wise,' said Anders Soe-Jensen, president of Vestas Offshore.

'We are looking forward to seeing the UK government providing the best possible terms for the offshore wind industry to truly take off and the potential jobs becoming a reality.'

(Reporting by Gerard Wynn; editing by James Jukwey) Keywords: VESTAS/BRITAIN ([e-mail]; [phone]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.