A POWER station looks set to be built to serve a new cinema and hundreds of new homes in north Colchester.

Colchester Council’s newly formed company Colchester Amphora Energy will oversee the project, set to cost in the region of £10million.

If planning permission is granted the station would be built in a just few months’ time on land close to Colchester Rugby Club.

Council leader Paul Smith said: “We have been successful in attracting some Government funding for a heat pump at the Northern Gateway.

“Put simply, it extracts energy from the ground via a rod which brings the heat up and the energy is turned into power."

Mr Smith said the new technology would be mainly underground but above ground it would be housed in an office-style building about the size of a small home.

It would provide 24/7 power without any polluting Carbon Dioxide emissions.

Gazette: Paul Smith Colchester Council leader

The power plant would be partly for the 560 homes to be built on part of the Colchester Rugby Club fields off Mill Road.

The council has £5.5 million Government cash to free up space for the homes and fund the Northern Gateway sports complex.

Part of that complex includes the Cineworld cinema which, along with a Travelodge and restaurants, will open in late 2019.

The cost of the power plant project is “commercially sensitive” as tenders will have to go out for the contact to install it.

However, Mr Smith said it would be in the region of £10million.

An education block or community centre could even be created on the top level to make use of the building in the more efficient way, Mr Smith said.

Colchester Amphora Energy will sell the energy onto the homes and cinema to generate a profit.

Mr Smith added: “There will have to be a planning process, there will have to be a design scheme, but it is something we envisage happening in 24 months.

Mr Smith said similar power plants could be used for forthcoming garden settlements.

He added: “This is very innovative and the Government is very keen to see an integrated scheme like this where energy is produced on site and locally because it saves a fortune in power infrastructure costs and environmentally it is zero carbon, renewable energy.

"Potentially this could form the basis of a national scheme of providing low carbon energy to new developments.

“We think we are the only area with this sort of scheme that integrates it directly into a development.”

Various developers have shown an interest in building the homes on the rugby fields, Mr Smith said.

Colchester Amphora Energy will also aim to grow the number of power sites across the borough and continue to seek opportunities to work in partnership to deliver low carbon sources of energy for residents.

Chris Goldsmith, Chief Executive of Turnstone Estates, said: "This is yet another addition to the Colchester Northern Gateway area which is set to be a highly sustainable new quarter of the town.

"The prospect of being able to connect our new and much sought after leisure development to this new energy facility is very exciting."