25 July 2007 - The French arm of Spanish utility Endesa has received permission from the Montceau les Mines town council in France to build a 420 MW combined cycle gas turbine plant on land at the site of its Lucy thermal plant in Burgundy.

The €250m ($345.6m) plant will work alongside the existing 250 MW coal-fired plant and is slated to come on stream in 2010. The construction of this new plant forms part of Endesa's industrial plan for France, which envisages options for developing 2 000 MW of additional combined cycle gas (CCGT) capacity in France by 2010.

In addition to the permit to construct the Lucy plant, Endesa France has also recently obtained permission to build a further three CCGTs with total installed capacity of over 1600 MW. The company said that the new plants would allow Endesa France to diversify the fuel used at its generation assets by introducing natural gas.

The move is aimed at establishing a more balanced, competitive and environmentally compatible generation portfolio. In this regard, the use of natural gas will boost productivity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption, Endesa said.