THE company that runs Newport's port is planning to build a £2million wind turbine to generate electricity for the docks.

If Associated British Ports (ABP) plans come to fruition the turbine could be the third to join the skyline in the south of the city.

The turbine, which will be 80 metres high at its hub and 125 metres high at the tip of its blade, will generate electricity for the port.

The turbine will generate up to 2.3 megawatts of electricity, according to reports lodged with Newport council as part of a planning application for the development.

An environmental report said the habitat around the site would be managed to make it less attractive to birds, and concluded noise levels during the operation of the turbine would not have an adverse impact.

The report says the turbine will be positioned on a bend of the river, partially shielding it from view of the town and close to the Newport Transporter Bridge.

A spokesman for ABP said the firm is a large user of electrcity and that it seemed to be sensible to have a source of generation at the port.

He said the scheme is a £2 million project and that the turbine will generate a "very large chunk" of the port's total electricity use.

The landscape of the south of Newport changed in 2009 when Solutia installed two wind turbines at the firm's site in Lliswerry.

Welsh Water was granted planning permission for a wind turbine at its waste water treatment site near Uskmouth Power Station earlier this year.

Newport council officers will decide on the application in due course.