The units will be equipped to store carbon dioxide underground

E.ON UK's scheme is thought to be the first coal-fired power station to be built in the UK for more than 20 years.

Two units, if approved, will replace conventional coal-fire units at the existing power station in Kent, at Kingsnorth, with latest technology.

The new units produce less carbon than traditional ones and will eventually be able to capture the carbon they emit.

E.ON UK, which owns electricity generator Powergen, said the technology would cut emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by 200 million tonnes a year.

These are all important technologies to take our generation forward Paul Golby

The units would produce enough electricity to supply about 1.5 million homes when they came on-stream in 2012, the firm said.

Chief executive Paul Golby said: "This is part of the diverse energy mix we need in the UK - coal, gas, nuclear, wind.

"These are all important technologies to take our generation forward into the 21st Century."

He said the units would not have carbon capture and storage from the outset because the technology was not developed yet.

But he said a separate programme was under way in Killingholme, Lincolnshire, where that technology was being worked on.

Last month, the energy giant was given the go-ahead by the government to build a �350m gas-fired power station in Kent on the site of what was an oil-fired station on the Isle of Grain.