Two Energy-from-Waste Facilities Proposed in the U.K.

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Two energy-from-waste (EfW) facilities with a combined electricity generating capacity of 100 megawatts (MW) are being proposed for the U.K.

EfW specialists Covanta Energy (Kingswinford, England), a subsidiary of New Jersey-based Covanta Holding Corporation (NYSE:CVA) (Fairfield, New Jersey), plans to construct a facility 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 (Maidenhead, England) and Sembcorp UK (Middlesborough, England) for a facility at the Sembcorp-owned Wilton International site near Middlesbrough. The £200 million ($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 (Manchester, England) announced that construction was ready to begin on the U.K.'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. For additional information, see June 3, 2010, article - U.K.'s Largest 'Eco-Park' Moves Forward.

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 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," 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, which can be used to generate energy again."

SITA UK already operates a large-scale EfW facility at Billingham, while Sembcorp runs a 300,000-tonne-per-year biomass facility on the Wilton International site. SITA UK is a subsidiary of Suez Environnement SA (EPA:SEV) (Paris, France) and Veolia Environmental Services plc (London), part of Veolia Environnement (NYSE:VE), (Paris). Sembcorp UK is part of the global Sembcorp Industries Limited (PINKSHEETS:SMBDY) (Singapore) group.

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