Calpine, the indebted US power producer, has sold one of Britain's most modern power stations.

The station is its last UK asset and was sold to a consortium led by International Power, the UK-based electricity utility with operations on four continents, for £500 million (€731 million).

The deal for the Saltend station in the north-east of England, due to be announced today, underlines the interest in electricity generation in Europe as the market for power shows signs of revival after weaknesses in the past few years linked to over-capacity.

In the transaction, International Power has teamed up with Mitsui, the Japanese trading house, in a 70/30 partnership to take over the Saltend unit.

The same partnership featured in a £1 billion deal last year in which the UK utility and Mitsui acquired a series of global power plants previously operated by Edison Mission Energy of the US.