Greens set to fight coal-fired power plants on Thames

Pioneering coal-fired power stations may be built in the Thames Estuary area under plans which will infuriate green campaigners.

Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband today proposed allowing energy firms to build four demonstration power plants to make Britain a world leader in carbon capture and storage technology.

Fierce protests have already been staged at Kingsnorth in Kent over a proposed coal-fired power station. Power stations using fossil fuels are also sited at Tilbury and on the Isle of Grain.

Mr Miliband did not give backing in the Commons today to any of these locations for new power plants.

However, experts have identified Kingsnorth as a frontrunner for a demonstration plant and other sites would need to be found in the Thames Estuary area to develop the "cluster" model.

Supporters of carbon technology say 90 per cent of emissions produced by burning fossil fuels could be pumped through pipes to be stored underground.

A source close to Mr Miliband said: "We're talking about breakthrough technology and the UK is going to back up to four trial plants. A clustered approach makes sense given the need to build pipelines to transport the carbon for storage under the North Sea. So areas on the East Coast like the Thames Estuary, Humberside and Teesside are in pole position."

The power stations could turn the South East into an environmental battle zone, with campaigners targeting plans for a third runway at Heathrow.

Mr Miliband sought to make the case to MPs of the need for coal to play a significant role in the UK's future energy mix. Britain is committed to slashing carbon dioxide emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.

About 63 million tons of coal are burned a year, generating a third of the country's electricity. But coal-fired power stations have been blamed for about a quarter of UK carbon emissions.

Mr Miliband argued that Carbon Capture and Storage could revolutionise this source of energy and said the first demonstration power plant could be running by 2014. Scientists and green campaigners oppose new coal-fired power stations while CCS technology remains so far unproven.

They fear a new generation of polluting plants will get the go-ahead but the carbon storage equipment will never be installed.

Ministers say new coal-fired stations are needed — along with a new generation of nuclear plants — as old ones close.