UP to 25 full-time jobs will be created in south Cumbria when a £200 million offshore power station, which will use gas and wind to make electricity, is built off Barrow.

The building of the power station ten kilometers off the coast of Barrow in the eastern Irish Sea during the next two years will also provide work for hundreds of people in the area.

This week the Department of Trade and Industry announced it has granted a license to Eclipse Energy Company, based in Lincolnshire, and Rolls Royce Power Ventures, in London, to exploit the two small gas fields about six miles off Walney.

The power station could be the world's first commercial offshore gas-fired power plant that will send gas ashore to make electricity through a cable, instead of a pipeline.

The two companies plan to have the power station up and running within the next two years, but first a lengthy local consultation plan has to be conducted.

External affairs manager for Eclipse Peter Sills said: "During the next 12 months we will be talking to firms in the area about how they can be involved in the scheme as well as doing a very detailed local consultation plan.

Then the following 12 months will be spent building the station and getting it operational, which will create hundreds of jobs.

"Once it is up and running, we hope in about two years, it will create up to 25 full-time jobs, which will be long-term as we plan to have the station running for at least 25 years.

"We would love to employ local people as long as the expertise is there."