The turbines will replace coal-fired units, but the inspectorate said they should be blocked because of their impact on climate change, producing up to 75% of the emissions budget for the entire UK power sector.

But the Government said the project should go-ahead after weighing up the balance between security of energy supply, energy affordability and decarbonisation.

The project would have a new combined capacity of up to 3.6GW.

The first two turbine units producing 1.8GW are expected to be onstream from October 2023.

It is also proposed to construct up to two battery storage facilities, one per generating unit and each up to 100MW.

A new gas pipeline will be built to connect to the existing National Transmission System pipeline 3 km to the east across largely agricultural land.

The new gas plant would be engineered to allow carbon capture equipment to be fitted in the future.

This could help to displace less efficient and higher carbon-emitting power stations, enabling further decarbonisation of the UK’s power system.