Italian energy firm Eni has entered the offshore wind market in the UK with the acquisition of a 20% stake in the Dogger Bank (A and B) project.

The buyout from Equinor and SSE Renewables means the new overall shareholding in Dogger Bank A (1.2GW) and Dogger Bank B (1.2GW) will be – SSE (40%), Equinor (40%) and Eni (20%).

The project involves the installation of 190 turbines located around 80 miles off the British coast, with a total capacity of 2.4GW.

At full capacity of 3.6GW, which includes Dogger Bank C, the offshore wind farm will be the world’s largest project of its kind, generating around 5% of UK demand for renewable electricity and supplying power to six million homes.

The construction of Dogger Bank (A and B) is expected to cost a total of £6 billion and will take place in two stages, with the first to be completed by 2023 and the second by 2024.

With the acquisition, Eni adds 480MW of green energy to its 2025 target of 5GW of installed capacity from renewable sources.

Claudio Descalzi, Chief Executive Officer of Eni said: “For Eni, entering the offshore wind market in Northern Europe is a great opportunity to gain further skills in the sector thanks to the collaboration with two of the industry’s leading companies and to make a substantial contribution to the 2025 target of 5GW of installed capacity from renewables, an intermediate step towards the more ambitious target of zero net direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions in Europe by 2050.”