THE company behind Goodfellas pizzas and other ready meals, Northern Foods, has joined forces with a technology minnow to develop a power station that will turn waste into electricity.

Northern, along with fellow food producers Greencore and Greggs, will provide both food and packaging waste to Inetec, the company that developed the technology.

Phil Nicholas, managing director of Inetec, is to submit a planning application to build the first of up to 10 such mini-power stations, on a 10-acre site at Immingham on the Humber.

The initial site is expected to cost about £50m, with further stations planned for the north-west, the central Midlands, outside London and the Severn estuary. The total outlay if all 10 stations are built will be about £250m.

Energy produced by the mini-power stations, which will operate round the clock, will be supplied to the national electricity grid.

It is the latest in a series of technologies being developed to try to boost the amount of industrial waste that is recyled and reduce our reliance on traditional forms of energy.

Inetec, which was set up nine years ago, has received financial backing from the investment arm of the Welsh Assembly as well as two venture-capital funds, Oxford Capital Partners and Foursome, an ethical investor.

Inetec has already developed smaller versions of these power stations for use by companies at individual plants.