Two EfW facilities proposed in UK

UK energy-from-waste projects expand as Covanta and partners advance EfW plants delivering renewable power, CHP steam and heat, grid exports, and waste-to-energy capacity in Bedfordshire, Teesside, and the Stanlow eco-park.

Two energy-from-waste EfW facilities with a combined electricity generating capacity of 100 megawatts MW are being proposed for the UK.

EfW specialists Covanta Energy, a subsidiary of New Jersey-based Covanta Holding Corporation, plans to construct a waste-burning power plant with a generating capacity of 65 MW at Rookery South Pit, near Stewartby in Bedfordshire.

Another energy-from-waste plant is being proposed by Teesside-based companies SITA UK Limited and Sembcorp UK for a facility at the Sembcorp-owned Wilton International site near Middlesbrough, reflecting recent biomass plant planning developments in the UK.

The £200 million US $313.6 million project will begin construction in 2012 and, when complete in 2015, will have a generating capacity of 35 MW, enough to power 55,000 homes.

In June, Covanta and partner company Peel Environmental announced that construction was ready to begin on the UK's largest eco-park, which will contain its own 95-MW EfW facility. The controversial eco-park, which will cost £500 million $784 million to create, is located on a 126-acre site adjacent to the Stanlow Oil Refinery on the south bank of the Manchester Ship Canal and, when operational, will generate enough electricity for about 150,000 homes.

The new planned Covanta project, known as the Rookery South Resource Recovery Facility, will convert approximately 585,000 tonnes of residual waste per year into 65 MW of electricity, of which 55 MW will be exported to the national grid. This will be enough to power approximately 82,500 homes. The plant will also be able to supply surplus heat via a waste-to-energy CHP plant to local business parks in the area.

The SITA UK and Sembcorp UK facility, known as Wilton 11, will treat 400,000 tonnes of non-hazardous waste sourced from businesses and local authorities in the Teesside area. The facility will also produce steam and heat to be used on the Wilton International site.

"This move builds on our earlier move into renewable energy via our successful biomass power plant initiative," said John Bone, vice president for business development at Sembcorp UK. "The skills of the Teesside workforce, plus the infrastructure already in place, mean we are ideally placed to extend our expertise in this growing sector."

Andy Stokes, head of development at SITA UK, added: "We have to shift the way we think about waste, from being something we throw away to a resource that has a second life for power solutions across the UK, which can be used to generate energy again."

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