Japanese firms purchase £1bn stake in Triton Knoll offshore wind farm

Two Japanese firms have invested almost £1 billion for a stake in a UK offshore wind farm.

J-Power and Kansai Electric Power, operating together as Japan’s Electric Power Development, have inked a deal for 41% of the Triton Knoll offshore wind farm.

The Japanese energy group has agreed to acquire its stake from Innogy Renewables UK, the UK operating renewables business of German energy company Innogy.

J-Power is Japan’s sixth largest energy company and is based in Tokyo while Kansai Electric power is a utility headquartered in Osaka.

Triton Knoll is an 860MW construction-ready project in the Greater Wash area of UK coastal waters along the East coast of England.

It was awarded a Contract for Difference by the UK government in 2017 at a price of £74.75 per megawatt-hour.

The offshore wind development is expected to be a 90 wind turbine site.

As part of the company who facilitated the deal, Dominic Szanto, director and head of offshore wind at JLL’s Energy and Infrastructure Advisory group, said: “This is a substantial milestone in the globalisation of the offshore wind industry and signifies the importance of renewable energy to the Japanese economy.

“We expect deals between experienced European offshore wind operators of the stature of Innogy and companies such as J-POWER to become more prevalent in the near future, and for offshore wind expertise to be a major export for the UK and broader European economy.”