UK: Natural gas to plug energy gap

Faced with a shortfall in energy supply and the need to boost economic activity during the recession, the country has commissioned three new gas-fired power stations. They will add nearly 4 gigawatts (GW) of capacity to the grid – the largest increase to be announced by the government at one time for more than two decades. Npower, owned by Germany's RWE, received the green light for its £1bn ($1.4bn) 2 GW combined-cycle gas-turbine (CCGT) power station at Pembroke, on the Welsh coast, to be built by engineering group Alstom. Centrica has been given the go-ahead for a 1.02 GW CGGT power station at King's Lynn, on the east coast of England, where it already has a 325 MW gas-fired power station