Northern Ireland Chicken-waste Power Plant Approved

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--The first poultry waste-to-energy power plant for Northern Ireland looks set to get the green light following the thumbs up from the country's environmental agency.

Edwin Poots, Northern Ireland's environmental minister, issued a positive statement outlining his intention to give permission for the 30-megawatt (MW) energy-from-waste (EfW) plant at Glenavy in County Antrim, to Rose Energy Limited (Glenavy), despite significant local opposition. The power plant's incinerator will be fuelled by poultry bedding and meat and bone meal, generating enough electricity for approximately 25,000 homes and meeting one-third of Northern Ireland's sustainable energy obligations. However, out of 12,000 responses from locals to the proposals, more than half opposed the development.

Rose Energy Limited (Glenavy) was formed as a joint venture between three of Northern Ireland's leading agri-food companies: Moy Park Limited (Craigavon), O'Kane Poultry Limited (Broughshane, Ballymena) and Glenfarm Holdings Limited (Glenavy). The company was hoping to gain permission for the plant in 2008, but the process was stalled by a public inquiry. For additional information, see September 11, 2009, news article - Rose Energy Plans 30-Megawatt Waste-to-Energy Plant in Northern Ireland.

Poots said: "I am fully aware of both the opposition and support for the power plant and that I have a judgement to make between the benefits of the proposal to the poultry industry and the Northern Ireland economy and the potential adverse impacts on residential amenity and the landscape setting. Having given the proposal careful consideration, including visiting the site and viewing it from Lough Neagh, I am satisfied that, on balance, it should be approved."

Poots added: "The power plant facility will create in the region of 300 to 400 construction jobs and approximately 30 permanent jobs in the operation of the facility, once constructed. It will also have indirect employment and investment benefits in connection with Belfast Port and the haulage industry in Northern Ireland. This type of investment is necessary to further stimulate the local economy, something the Executive is striving to secure. It is an example of investment that can contribute in many ways, providing long-term work, generating power, supporting local agriculture, and related industries."

The Northern Ireland poultry industry generates an income of more than £2 million ($3.1 million) to Belfast Port and the main poultry producers, importing 680,000 tonnes of feed annually. Poots said that a biomass-fuelled incineration plant is the only proven technology for processing poultry litter on a commercial scale.

Rose Energy's chairman, Tony O'Neill, said: "We have spent over six years researching and developing our proposals and have worked with planning and environmental experts to ensure that our planning application was robust and thorough. Throughout this period we have maintained that our proposal represents the best solution for Northern Ireland's agri-food sector, and for achieving our renewable green energy targets. The approval of our scheme marks an important step forward for Northern Ireland's capability to generate renewable energy, given that Rose Energy will meet a third of our non-wind renewable energy obligations."

In related news in the Republic of Ireland, the planned Poolbeg incinerator project for Dublin has been thrown a lifeline by Dublin City Council, which has extended the contract for the controversial 350 million-euro ($447 million) project with developer Covanta Energy (Kingswinford, England), a subsidiary of Covanta Holding Corporation (NYSE:CVA) (Fairfield, New Jersey). The contract for the construction of the 60-MW plant, which is at the centre of fierce opposition locally and politically, has been extended until May 2011.

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