Bioenergy & Waste News

Friday 10 October 2008

An impression of the planned Capel energy-from-waste plant, which is still subject to a High Court challenge

An eight-year battle with planners in Surrey appeared to be won this week by a company seeking to develop an energy-from-waste plant to make use of household waste to generate power.

But, as the county council's planning committee granted consent for a facility next to the Hanson brickworks in Capel, it emerged that a further legal challenge from residents could yet derail the project.

SITA UK's local subsidiary Surrey Waste Management has been attempting to develop an incinerator in the county since winning a Private Finance Initiative waste contract with the county back in 1999, with first proposals put forward in the year 2000.

The county's planning and regulatory committee has finally approved a facility, designed to be smaller than previous proposals for Surrey, at Clockhouse Brickworks in the south of the county.

The plant will export 8MW to the national grid, producing the equivalent electricity to the needs of 8,000 homes. It will use around 110,000 tonnes of residual household waste each year as a fuel, collected from Slyfield, Mole Valley and Epsom.

It will use conventional "moving grate" incineration technology in a single line, burning waste at 850 degrees centigrade.

Power generated at 11kV will be stepped up to 33kV for export via an underground cable to the Capel substation 3km north of the facility.

Sean Trotter, general manager of Surrey Waste Management, said: "This decision is an important step forward for our proposal to develop an EfW facility at Capel. We will continue to work with the county council to encourage residents to reduce the amount of waste they generate and recycle as much as possible, however, there will still be thousands of tonnes of waste leftover each year that cannot be sensibly recycled and this facility will provide us with a much needed alternative to landfill."

Challenge

SITA, part of Suez Environnement, noted that its planning permission can still be called in by the Secretary of State for his consideration, and could also be subject to a Judicial Review.

A legal challenge into the county's long-term waste management plans is to be heard in January 2009, which could cause further headaches for the French-owned waste management company. Capel parish council wants the High Court to rule that the Surrey Waste Plan should be re-thought.

The challenge specifically suggests that the Clockhouse Brickworks site is the wrong site for an incinerator, and makes claims about air quality, health impacts and traffic generation issues.

Meanwhile, Surrey Waste Management is in the process of seeking a contractor to build the Capel facility, although construction is unlikely to begin until Spring 2009 at the earliest, which would see the facility opening in winter 2011.

Mr Trotter said: "Recovering energy-from-waste represents the best environmental option for treating the county's residual household waste. Energy-from-waste is used successfully in many European countries with high recycling rates such as Sweden and Germany. The proposed facility at the Clockhouse Brickworks will provide a safe, efficient and environmentally sustainable way of dealing with residual household waste."

SITA is also seeking to develop a second incinerator in Surrey at Longcross, and submitted plans in June for a slightly larger facility than the Capel plant.