Siemens has joined forces with Shangai Electric to help advance wind power technology in the world's most populous nation.

The two companies signed a deal yesterday that will see them pool resources to jointly research, develop, and produce new technologies specifically for the Chinese wind market. The companies have worked together in the past, providing turbines for an offshore Chinese wind farm earlier this year, and Siemens currently operates a turbine blade production facility in Shanghai. Overall, Siemens has been operating in China for 139 years.

The deal will also see Siemens and Shanghai Electric working together to improve the state of wind technology sales, marketing, and service in the country. With both ventures, Shanghai Electric will have a 51 percent stake in operations and Siemens 49 percent.

"Our target is to become one of the world's leading suppliers of wind turbines," Siemens' Michael Suess said, calling China "the world's most important wind power market."

As of 2010, China had an overall wind power capacity of 44,733 MW, putting it ahead of the United States as the world's largest wind power market.