BP is returning to the solar power market by taking a $200m stake in Europe’s biggest solar operator with plans for a global roll-out.

The oil major’s investment in Lightsource over the next three years marks BP’s return to solar power after turning its back on the market in 2011.

It will hold a 43pc stake in the company, which will be renamed Lightsource BP. It plans to harness the oil group’s global scale and energy trading acumen to develop solar projects in the US, India, Europe and the Middle East.

Bob Dudley, BP’s chief executive, said the group was “excited to be coming back to solar, but in a new and very different way”.

BP launched a high-profile move into clean energies as part of its “beyond petroleum” corporate rebrand in the 2000s but disappointing profits and stiff competition in China caused the the group to retreat following the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010.

“While our history in the solar industry was centred on manufacturing panels, Lightsource BP will instead grow value through developing and managing major solar projects around the world,” Mr Dudley said.

Lighthouse BP will sit within its Alternative Energy business alongside investments in wind energy, biofuels and biopower as part of BP’s shift towards lower carbon energy.