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When it is built, the plant could produce enough green energy to power the equivalent of about 100,000 homes.

It is expected to provide approximately 267 full time jobs during the construction phase and 75 permanent full time jobs working a shift pattern when the plant is running.

Malcolm Wicks said:
"This is another stepping stone towards powering a greener, cleaner UK. Not only does it help tackle climate change and increase secure supplies of energy, but the building and running of this biomass plant will also provide jobs in Lincolnshire.

"This announcement takes us closer to achieving our proposed renewable energy targets. We have doubled the amount of renewable electricity to 5% over the last few years and later this month we will be launching our consultation on how we can drive this forward even further."

John Seed, Managing Director of Helius Energy welcomed the news, saying:
"This consent allows Helius Energy to begin to implement our plans for the production of renewable electricity from sustainable biomass. Now that we have been granted consent by the Secretary of State we look forward to working closely with North East Lincolnshire Council to bring this project to completion."

The power station will initially be fuelled by 430,000 tonnes of sustainably sourced feedstock each year including waste wood, specially grown crops and the leftovers from timber processing activities sourced from the UK and Europe.

Planning permission has also been granted to build an additional biomass processing facility and bioethanol and biodiesel refinery. The intention is that spent grains from the bioethanol plant and glycerol from the biodiesel plant will eventually be used as the fuel feedstock for the power station.

Construction of Phase I, the biomass energy plant, costing circa £200 million, is expected to start later this year and to be operational by 2011. The development will also include an area of approximately 20 hectares specifically set aside for birds and water voles.

In July 2007, Bob Geldoff joined Helius' African subsidary as a special adviser to lend his weight to the company's projects on the African continent.