Under the contract, Siemens will develop, deliver, install and commission 67 Siemens direct-drive wind turbines, each rated at 6MW and equipped with a 154m rotor for the project operated by Statoil.

Located 32km north of the city of Cromer in North Norfolk, the 402MW Dudgeon offshore wind project will be operated by and is owned by Statoil (70%) and Statkraft (30%).

Siemens Energy Wind Power Division CEO Dr Markus Tacke said: "With Dudgeon we extend our project pipeline for this new turbine. This gives us the opportunity to further ramp up production capacity, which is a precondition to bring down the costs for offshore wind."

Siemens will commence installation work in early 2017, as part of the five-year-service contract, which is valued at approximately €650m.

The contract also includes service and maintenance agreement.

The Dudgeon project will provide clean power to more than 410,000 UK households.