A NEW power station which could create more than 1,000 new jobs for Selby could also help the town become a centre of excellence for green power.

Plans for the White Rose Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project would see a new coal-fired power station built on land north of the existing Drax Power Station, and would be the first of its kind in the country.

The proposal is one of two bidding for funding from the Government's Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) study, which aims to help generate clean, low-carbon electricity, and this week, three events were held in Drax, Selby and Goole for the public to find out more about the plans.

James Dunwell, from Selby Chamber of Commerce, said not only would the employment benefit the area, but it could help improve how Selby is thought of.

He said: “Any construction project will be greatly welcome, and the long term is also good for highly skilled jobs, which would bring more residents and money in the area, potentially. It could also help give Selby an identity.

“If we have the biomass projects at Drax and Eggborough, and the other project at Kellingley with the CCS, we become a centre of excellence for green power. That is the potential that Selby could pin its hat to, and say we are the country’s leading area for this sort of technology, it’s something to shout about.

With the new technology, about 90 per cent of all carbon dioxide from the burned coal would be captured in the facility, then pumped as a liquid through an underground pipeline created by the National Grid, into permanent storage deep beneath the North Sea, instead of being let loose into the atmosphere.

Councillor Mike Jordan said if the new site went ahead, it would make the most of the materials already available to it.

“I think it’s a great idea,” he said. “As an industrial chemist I was keen to see what they were going to do to keep the environmental impact down as low as possible.

“This scheme can’t come online soon enough for me, because the good thing about it is it’s using the infrastructure that’s already there, you don’t have to have new cables from the National Grid, the facilities for dealing with the ash are there, and absolutely critical you have got feedstock infrastructure railway and experts on site.”

The plans have been drawn up by three companies, Alstom, Drax and BOC Linde, acting as the consortium Capture Power Limited, and if the project goes ahead would create more than 1,000 construction jobs over four years. Once operational, the plant, which would operate for at least 25 years, would employ up to 60 people.

Further public consultations will take place later this year. For more information go to whiteroseccs.co.uk and at ccshumber.co.uk