Three new gas fired power stations capable of providing power for around four million homes, have been approved by the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

The consented power stations are:

• a 2,000 MW Combined Cycle Gas Turbine power station at Pembroke, South West Wales to RWE npower

• a 900 MW integrated coal gasification gas-fired power station at Hatfield, Yorkshire to Powerfuel Power Ltd

• a 1,020 MW Combined Cycle Gas Turbine power station at King’s Lynn, Norfolk to Centrica Leasing (KL) Ltd

The power stations will produce approximately 4GW of power and agreed that during the planning process that they will have the necessary land available to retrofit a carbon capture and storage plant for future use.

Consent was also given to build a second phase at Hatfield consisting of an integrated coal gasification combined cycle power station, which will use coal to produce hydrogen to fuel the station.

Mike O’Brien, DECC minister, said: “It is essential to replace older polluting power stations that are reaching the end of their lives with new stations that operate more efficiently. Investment like this in the energy sector will create new engineering and construction jobs and these power stations will generate energy for four million homes for decades to come.”