NEW power plants are planned that could bring dozens of jobs to the Selby district.

Developers want to set up a 20-megawatt renewable energy plant at Riccall Business Park, formerly Riccall Mine, and a bio-fuelled plant at Whitemoor Business Park, in Cliffe Common. Two separate planning applications have been submitted to Selby District Council.

The Riccall plans are for two buildings, one between about 40 feet and 26 feet high, and another smaller one.

A large chimney of about 16 metres, or 52 feet, would also be built. Should the plans go ahead, developers Infinergy said 24 full-time jobs and 12 part-time shift work posts would be created, including clerical and accountancy work, engineers, machine operators, and operators for the power plant.

The report, by LDP chartered town planners on behalf of the developers, said: “The significant contribution the power plant will make when fully operational will go towards ensuring Selby as a district fulfils its obligations to deliver sufficient provision of renewable energy.”

The second application, submitted by REG Bio Power, would see ten unmanned power generation units and two 80,000-litre storage tanks created in Whitemoor Business Park, which the application said are of “an extremely modest scale”.

It said the units would all be enclosed in shipping-type containers, creating a “functional and utilitarian appearance, as the larger components are containerised and generally hide the smaller unattractive components”.

The application, which follows an earlier, similar submission for the site, dating back to 2011, said: “The best one can say about the appearance of the proposal is that it is as good as it can be and entirely appropriate to its purpose.”

A decision on the Riccall plans is expected to be made in April, while the Cliffe application should be decided in March.