WORK is continuing to build a £160m Teesside power station.

This latest picture shows contractors overseeing the construction of a boiler house, which will form part of the Port Clarence Renewable Energy Plant, near Middlesbrough.

The development is expected to generate enough electricity to power 75,000 homes by burning waste wood.

Work started late last year, with the site due to begin operating in early 2018.

The plant is due to create up to 30 direct jobs and support 300 construction posts.

Bosses have also revealed local sub-contractors, including Booth Construction, of Guisborough, east Cleveland, and Shepherd Engineering, which has bases in Teesside and York, are benefitting from work on the scheme.

Plans for the power station were unveiled nearly three years ago, when they were overseen by developer Eco2 Limited and investor Temporis Capital, on behalf of Port Clarence Energy Limited.

However, the development was subsequently sold to clean energy investment specialist Glennmont Partners, with Eco2 remaining responsible for managing the site.

Eco2 is now working with the Babcock and Wilcox Volund and Lagan Construction Group joint venture on construction.

Proposals to build a biomass factory on the site, which is next to Koppers UK chemical plant, were first revealed in 2009, but were dashed when the company behind it struggled to attract funding.

Bio Energy Investments had wanted to build a futuristic plant, designed by internationally-renowned Heatherwick Studio, to imitate South-West London’s Battersea Power Station by creating an iconic feature.

The plans would have used nut husks from Malaysia, and fitted the factory with a volcano-shaped tower and viewing platforms, as well as soil stacked against its sides to turn the area into a park for walking and tobogganing.