Dock's £800m power plant back on

The power plant will produce enough electricity for 3m homes

One of the UK's main energy firms says its proposal to build an £800m power station in Pembrokeshire is back on.

RWE npower has signed a deal with a contractor to build what it calls "a low carbon station" that would create around 100 jobs near Pembroke Dock.

Earlier this year the company chose Staythorpe in Nottinghamshire ahead of Pembroke Dock for a similar project but now it says both will be built.

The change of heart has been welcomed by Pembrokeshire Council.

If it goes ahead, the gas-fired station will have the capacity to provide power for three million homes.

Company chief executive Andrew Duff said the two developments will replace existing coal power stations at Didcot and Tilbury in England.

"The investments we've announced this year will make a vital contribution to meeting the country's energy needs as older coal and nuclear plant begin to close over the next decade," he said.

"At the same time they will dramatically reduce the intensity of our CO2 emissions."

Pembrokeshire's cabinet member for economic development John Allen-Mirehouse said: "This is a huge step forward."

He said as well as creating around 100 well-paid jobs it would "help sustain the construction and engineering boom that has lifted the Pembrokeshire economy in recent years."

However, Friends of the Earth Cymru have voiced opposition to the station in the past.

It claims Pembrokeshire could overtake Neath Port Talbot as Wales's top emitting county of carbon dioxide if it is built.