A POWER station is turning to wood and vegetables tomorrow in a bid to save costs and cut over 200,000 tons of harmful gases belching across the Medway estuary.

Powergen will test out pellets made from wood and green vegetables at Kingsnorth power station, near Rochester. The station has been accused of contributing to air pollution in the Medway towns.

The Hoo peninsula is the fourth most polluted place in Britain. The company says the green biomass pellets it will start using tomorrow are free of carbon dioxide. The trial will see pellets of wood or vegetable material being burned at the station in a mix with coal.

The station is designed to operate with a mixture of fuels. It has operated with coal and oil mixtures in the past.

Powergen will be able to test the commercial advantages of burning such fuels on a larger scale. It could also test the availability of reliable supplies at the right price.

Mark Draper, Powergen's managing director of generation, said: "Biomass is very much the fuel of the future. It's clean and can be produced in an environmentally friendly way."