A city firm is preparing for a brave new world as the final coal-fired power station in the West Midlands closes.

Sutton Coldfield-based Power Minerals was set up to resell coal ash created by power stations for new uses including by construction and cement companies as an aggregate replacement.

Among its customers is the Drax power plant in North Yorkshire, the largest coal-fired station in Europe where it also has staff based, and its work ensures as little coal ash as possible goes into landfill.

But as French firm Engie prepares to decommission Rugeley Power Station - the last in the whole of the West Midlands - Power Minerals managing director Nigel Waldron is looking ahead to finding new uses and customers for the waste product.

He told the Post : "There are several areas where we can succeed so ash is really a good market to be in.

"We can replace it with imported ash and there are still large stocks in the UK even though power stations are closing.

"We're keen to look into niche areas and, because we have German owners backing us and we are small and flexible, we can do this.

"There are about half a dozen coal-fired power stations left in the UK which all have question marks over their futures."

Mr Waldron said biomass ash and cenospheres were two key sectors which the company was looking at.

Biomass stations use plant life to create energy while cenospheres can be used as a lightweight filler in innovative products such as car components and even tenpin bowling balls.

Mr Waldron, who has more than three decades' experience in the electricity industry, has previously worked at traditional coal-fired power stations across the region including Ironbridge in Shropshire which was decommissioned last year.

He decided to start a new chapter after taking redundancy so set up Hargreaves Coal Combustion Products in 2003 with colleague Peter Brennan before they sold it to German chemical company Evonik in 2010 as it was targeting the European ash market.

After a handover period, Mr Waldron decided to stay on as managing director of the newly named Power Minerals and worked through a second sale to its current owner, German energy group Steag.

The company now has around 15 employees spread across its HQ in Sutton Coldfield and on-site staff based at Rugeley and Drax power stations.

Mr Waldron added: "The energy market needs to have a balanced mixed of coal, nuclear, wood and imports and coal is reliable whereas, with something like wind, you have to keep checking the weather forecast.

"The business has had to act very quickly to change."