"We will supply 700 turbines, or around 5GW, when the projects start," he says.

Kato says Japan's MHI has preliminary agreements with SSE, one of the participants in the Forewind Consortium, around supplying Dogger.

SSE is involved in the development of the Sea Angel turbine through the £33m ($51m) Efficient Offshore Wind Programme, along with contractors Wood Group and Technip, and is due to deploy an offshore prototype of the machine in a test site in Hunterston, Scotland, in June this year.

Another