Gas plant approved for north of England

Plans from Ireland’s Electricity Supply Board (ESB) for a £750 million (€1.1 billion) combined cycle gas turbine power station in Knottingley, West Yorkshire, UK, have gained development consent.

The 1,500MW facility, which is to be built on a former Oxiris chemical works, has been approved by the Planning Inspectorate. It is expected to provide power for up to 2 million homes.

There had been a six-month examination of the scheme, which had originally been submitted for planning consideration in October, 2013.

It will require the construction of a new 8km gas pipeline from the site to transfer natural gas from the gas network to the power station. The project is the third of its kind in the UK to be approved by the Planning Inspectorate.

ESB said the new power station would be “substantially smaller in size, require less space and have less visual impact” than traditional fossil fuel power plants.

Construction is expected to begin in 2017, with the site scheduled to be operational by 2020.