Companies competing to build Britain’s first “clean coal” power station have warned that the project risks missing its target start date because of government delays.

Ministers have promised to back a large-scale demonstration of a coal-fired power plant that captures and stores its carbon dioxide emissions, and in 2007 launched a competition for companies to bid for funding. The government wants the plant to be operational by 2014, and says it is committed to developing a commercial-scale clean coal plant as quickly as possible.