Green light for Britain’s biggest energy from waste plant
Wednesday 17 September 2008
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| An impression of the INEOS plant proposed for a 18 hectare site next to Runcorn |
Energy minister Malcolm Wicks has given permission to chemical firm INEOS Chlor to build the biggest energy-from-waste plant in Britain on Merseyside.
The £300 million facility at Picow Farm, Weston Point, near Runcorn in Cheshire, would generate 100MW of electricity as well as 360MW of heat energy through a combined heat and power system.
The energy is to be used in the INEOS chemical factory - one of the largest single consumers of energy in the UK, power consumption at the Runcorn site is the same as the city of Liverpool.
Using 750,000 to 850,000 tonnes of fuel each year made from municipal waste, the plant looks set to be the major component in the UK's largest waste management contract, a £4 billion Private Finance Initiative project in Manchester. The PFI project is being run by waste firm Viridor and construction firm Laing.
As well as taking in waste collected from Manchester homes, the facility potentially use waste from Merseyside, Halton, and Warrington, and Ineos is also part of a consortium bidding for a £1 billion PFI waste contract for Cheshire.
"Controversial"
Announcing approval for the Picow Farm plant, the energy minister said it would help prevent waste being sent to landfill, but acknowledged there had been local concerns about the impact of the plant on public health.
Mr Wicks said: "While acknowledging that this proposal was controversial locally, this approval takes into account the concerns that were raised. The key concern of impact on public health will be properly addressed through planning conditions at the construction stage and when the station is operational, through the environmental permitting regime regulated by the Environment Agency."
Ineos has been awaiting a planning decision on the Pickow Farm plant since January 2007. Hopes are that the facility could be operational in 2011.
The facility will be developed on a 18.6 hectare site, including a 47 metre high boiler building and 105m chimney. Planning documents suggest it could provide up to 20% of the energy needed for the INEOS production plant, replacing natural gas power. The Runcorn site is one of the largest single users of energy in the UK, requiring 335MW of electricity and 160MW of thermal energy.
Technology
The key concern of impact on public health will be properly addressed through planning conditions at the construction stage and when the station is operational.
The proposed energy-from-waste plant will use water-cooled moving grate system to burn up to 100 tonnes an hour of solid recovered fuel (SRF) or refuse-derived fuel (RDF) produced in a waste-processing facilities using mechanical biological treatment (MBT) technology.
This fuel is essentially municipal waste that has had recyclable materials like metals and glass taken out, and has been composted or digested and dried to form a stable combustible fuel. The fuel will have a calorific value higher than normal waste, though around half that of coal - around 11 to 16GJ per tonne. It would have a biomass content of around 60%, with only that biomass content eligible for renewable energy subsidies under the government's ROC scheme.
Construction of the plant should create at least 100 jobs early on - and up to 750 jobs in later stages - while the operation of the facility should require a staff of around 50.
When built, the INEOS energy-from-waste plant would be larger than the 55MW Edmonton facility in North London, currently Britain's biggest waste-burning power plant. It will also be larger than the 66MW Belvedere incinerator being built in South-East London, which was seen as so large it took 16 years to win planning permission.
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