US clean energy innovation firm 8 Rivers Capital and Sembcorp Energy UK will jointly develop the new plant, known as the Whitetail Clean Energy project at Sembcorp’s Wilton International site in Redcar.

The plant, which would be the first of its kind, will use a new process to produce energy.  This operates by combusting natural gas with oxygen, rather than air, and uses supercritical carbon dioxide, a fluid, to drive the turbine instead of steam.

Thanks to Wilton International’s port and pipeline access, all the liquid carbon dioxide from the plant can be captured and transported under the North Sea, where it will be permanently stored.

Once up and running the energy power plant will produce 300MW of clean, efficient, low-cost electricity, with the potential to expand in the future.

The plant could be commissioned as early as 2025.