Plans are being drawn up for a new bio-fuel micro-power plant that will transform the carbon status of Chatterley Valley by early 2009.

Cutting edge proposals for energy generation at Chatterley Valley will stretch Gazeley's lead as the sector's foremost 'environmental developer'.

A new micro-power station will be the first of its type used in a distribution park anywhere in the world. It will provide the whole development with electricity and heat from on-site Bio-fuel generation.

The new power plant will produce less than one-sixteenth of the CO2 emissions of a similarly sized UK power station. This carbon reduction will be further enhanced by the negligible distribution line losses compared with the 25% national average.

The 10.8mw plant will save some 68,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per annum and will provide a significant volume of locallyusable carbon-free heating.

The annual CO2 saving is the equivalent of running 26,000 family size cars over an average mileage for the same period of time.

The primary fuel for the bio-fuel plant will be non-food quality, cold crushed rapeseed oil.

The rapeseed will be sourced from local farms grown mainly on land set-aside for non-food production.

Gazeley's customers will have the dual benefit of being able to purchase electricity and heat from a green energy source at prices substantially lower than the National Grid.

When the electrical needs of the development have been met, the surplus will be exported to the National Grid and will be sufficient to both power and heat 2,500 local homes.

The plant will also include an anaerobic digester which will convert both locally-collected organic waste and the solids derived from the bio-fuel production into additional carbon-free energy.