Areva has signed an MoU with Scottish Enterprise, a public body of the Scottish government, for establishing a factory to manufacture 5 MW turbines by 2015 or 2016.

Areva's Scottish plant would cater to offshore wind projects in UK, which has plans for setting up around 18 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2020.

The plant, whose exact location had not yet been finalised, could create up to 750 jobs and would cost Areva several tens of millions of euros to build, according to chief executive Luc Oursel.

The news comes in the wake of Danish wind turbine maker Vestas shutting its factory at the Port of Sheerness in southeast England, citing a lack of orders.

According to Areva, negotiations with developers of Scottish wind farms, such as Scottish Power and Vattenfall, could get under way in 2013 or 2014.

According to the Scottish government, Areva, which was also building factories in France and Germany, was looking closely at the future locations of offshore windf arms and the best supply bases before choosing a site for the new plant.