First Infrastructure Planning Commission Decision Favours Rookery South Waste-to-Energy Facility

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources Europe (Galway, Ireland)--The U.K. Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) has decided to grant development consent to Covanta Holding Corporation (NYSE:CVA) (Morristown, New Jersey) for the construction of the Rookery South Waste-to-Energy (WTE) plant in Bedfordshire.

The decision is the first to be issued by the IPC and follows a six-month examination of the application by a panel of three commissioners. Sir Michael Pitt, chair of the IPC, said: "The role of the IPC is to examine applications for nationally significant infrastructure projects, and to make decisions or recommendations on whether development consent should be granted. Today, the Commission has completed its first examination of an application, and done so within the timescales prescribed in the Planning Act."

The Covanta application was submitted to the IPC in August 2010. Upon acceptance, the process took slightly more than a year from acceptance to decision. As the Rookery South development needs to compulsorily acquire special category land, the development consent order now needs to go through a parliamentary process and a period of legal challenge before the order comes into effect. These processes are estimated to have a duration of six to nine months in total.

The proposed WTE facility will be fuelled by 585,000 tonnes per year of residual waste. Rated at 65 megawatts (MW) the plant will generate 55 MW of electricity and will also produce heat. The Rookery South development will have a post-treatment materials recovery facility, which will separate metals from the incinerator ash for recycling, with the remaining ash being used as secondary aggregate for construction projects. Construction of the WTE plant is expected to start in the second half of 2013 and is slated for commissioning in early 2015.v In his official statement, Malcolm Chilton, Covanta Energy's managing director, said: "Covanta is very pleased and proud to be the first organisation to be granted a Development Consent Order by the Infrastructure Planning Commission for a nationally significant infrastructure project. The IPC's examination of the resource recovery facility application has been an incredibly focused and comprehensive process, benefitting from a wealth of robust evidence. No stone was left unturned."

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