Engineering firm Alstom is boasting it has saved its customers 207million tonnes of carbon emissions a year. The firm points to advances in technology behind the power plants it built and improved between 2002 and 2011.

New analysis by the firm was released last week and covers 1,445 projects undertaken by Alstom over the ten year period, including renewable and thermal power projects.

It measured actual emissions of an Alstom plant in the first year of its operation against the standard emissions of the local plant type that it replaces.

The research which was audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers looked at more efficient gas turbines, steam turbines and boilers for coal-fired plants, pilot installations for Carbon, Capture & Storage.

Alstom says the carbon savings on renewable projects have grown as technology improves and it took on more green energy work, with the figures for hydro and wind rising by more than seventy times in the ten years.

Cutting emissions appears to have been most effective in “growth markets” such as China and India, where CO2 savings for every megawatt installed reached nearly 2,000 tonnes and more than 1,500 tonnes respectively.

Philippe Cochet, Thermal Power President said: “Energy sustainability is the goal we aim for and as these figures prove, we at Alstom push harder and harder each year to deliver cleaner power.”

Power plants make up a large chunk of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions: in 2011, the global power generation sector accounted for more than 40%. Last year Alstom completed the Pembroke power station in Wales (pictured) for energy supplier npower. It is meant to be the most efficient gas plant in Europe.