A DECISION on whether to allow a Teesside power plant to burn cow fat for energy is not expected until the end of the year, it was revealed last night.

The Environment Agency (EA) is launching a full-scale investigation into SembCorp Utilities' plan to create green energy by burning fat from cattle slaughtered at the height of the BSE crisis.

Permission is needed from the EA before SembCorp proceeds to an initial five-week trial.

The company, formerly Enron Teesside Operations until a buy-out earlier this year, has to convince the EA that the project is safe and will not be harmful to the public or workers.

SembCorp, which runs Wilton Power Station, near Redcar, Cleveland, hopes to capitalise on a global push to use renewable products to create electricity.

Last night, a spokeswoman for the EA said the company has decided to proceed to a full investigation.

She said: "It is predicted to take four months of our working time, which doesn't take into account time for correspondence between the firm and ourselves, so it is likely to be longer than three months.

"We are predicting that a decision will be made by the end of the year."

The decision on whether to give the go-ahead will be made after a full environmental impact assessment.

The investigation process will now go to public consultation, with the application document available for public scrutiny from this week.

There is enough fat to generate power for 18 months, after which the company hopes to expand its renewable energy plans.

The Singapore-owned firm is in negotiations with the Government to buy the rendered fat, which has been in storage since 1996.

Under the project, burners would be heated to 1,000 degrees centigrade before injecting the liquid fat.

The fat will be transported to Wilton on tankers, with 12 expected every day, five days a week, for over a year.

The 580-strong workforce has already been consulted on the plans.

But environmental groups have expressed concern that the fat could contain protein agents thought to transmit BSE, and they have said there was no conclusive proof these agents would be destroyed by extreme heat.