THOUSANDS of jobs could come to the region as a new generation of “clean coal” power stations is developed, it was revealed yesterday.

A Government consultation on carbon capture and storage, in which coal is burnt for energy while greenhouse gases are stored underground, has predicted up to 60,000 jobs could be created across the UK over the next 20 years. Energy experts are already looking at several sites, including Teesside and Blyth, which could become the first in the world to build clean power stations.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said efforts to make coal power stations cleaner were a “big industrial opportunity” which could support tens of thousands of jobs.

Mr Miliband said the Government’s drive to develop the technology to capture and store carbon emissions was “incredibly urgent” for efforts to tackle climate change, as he published a consultation on proposals on clean coal.

He said the proposed conditions for the construction of up to four new coal-fired stations part-fitted with the technology, which can cut emissions by up to 90%, were the “most environmentally ambitious in the world”.

Last night Professor Dermot Roddy, who heads up Newcastle University’s Sir Joseph Swan energy research, said the region was leading a global race to launch a large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) site.

He said: “The Government is looking for four sites to set up carbon capture and storage power stations, and across the region we have been working on a pre-combustion method of CCS, which sets us aside from many others but is the type ministers have said they are looking for.

“We can use deep underground saline aquifers in the North Sea, which store the carbon in porous rocks, and this is another difference in CCS that gives us an advantage.