£500m green power plant given Government go-ahead

Aug 29 2008 by Kathryn Smith, Evening Gazette

PLANS to build a £500m green power plant on Teesside, which could create 1,000 jobs during construction, have been given the Government go-ahead.

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) has granted planning consent for the 1,020 megawatt (MW) power station at Seal Sands.

Everything is now in place for Thor Cogeneration to begin construction of the plant on a 40 acre site off Huntsman Drive.

And the clean, green gas fired power plant could be operational in the first half of 2012.

Stockton Council approved the scheme in April 2007 and the license to generate was given the same year.

Thor Cogeneration director, Martin Green, said: “We very much welcome the decision which is a critical consent required for the construction of the heat and power plant and has involved a great deal of work and consultation with local stakeholders in the project and with BERR.”

He said the company would now be finalising the financial and contractual arrangements for the project.

“We would expect land preparation to commence very soon with the full construction commencing in 2009 and power being supplied into the grid in the early part of 2012,” he added.

The project will create up to 1,000 jobs during construction and a further 60 for operations.

In addition, it will utilise the very latest technology to achieve highly efficient, reliable and clean power and heat generation.

An environmental impact assessment has confirmed the venture will create one of the greenest power stations in the UK.

It will require around 20% less gas per MW hour of electricity generated than many of the country’s existing gas-fired stations and will produce up to 60% less carbon emissions than current coal-fired plants.

A combined cycle operation comprising two gas fired generators is planned.

The surplus heat from these units will be used to produce steam to drive a further generator, with additional steam also being exported to local industry.

Paul Verrill, project manager, said: “It fits well with the Government’s recent energy review which concluded that while the drive to develop alternative and renewable energy sources continues, a new generation of cleaner, super-efficient gas fired power stations is likely to remain necessary in the short to medium term,”

“This new plant will provide greener, reliable energy at a time when many existing power generation assets around the UK, particularly the ageing coal and nuclear fleet, are reaching the end of their operating life.”

Thor Cogeneration is a venture established by the new business development team of the Stockton-based px Group. Px was established in 2002. Since then its new business development team has secured a number of other contracts including the land-based aspects of the Teesside GasPort project through which Excelerate Energy ships natural gas to Teesport for processing and supply to the national transmission system.

Px also has an operations and management contract for one of the UK’s largest biodiesel production plants at Immingham owned by Greenergy Biofuels.