Veolia Commits to U.K. Biomass Sector

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--French waste and water treatment specialist Veolia Environnement SA (Euronext:VIE) (Paris, France) has committed to spending up to £750 million ($990 million) in the U.K. waste and energy sector but wants assurances from the new U.K. government following the country's planned exit from the European Union (EU).

The company has said it will forge ahead with the construction a 33 megawatt (MW) energy-from-waste (EfW) facility at Rye House, Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, England. The project is expected to cost around £100 million ($133 million) and will process all of Hertfordshire's residual waste to produce enough low carbon power for 69,000 homes. It will create around 300 jobs during construction and require around 40 permanent staff when completed. The project is expected to kick off in 2018 with commissioning slated for late 2019.

Overall, Veolia wants to create around 600 jobs in the coming years but U.K. managing director Estelle Brachlianoff, said there needs to be some clarity following the Brexit vote to leave the EU. One of the new U.K. government's most controversial decisions last month was to abolish the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and merge its functions into a new ministry called the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

"Everything was thrown up in the air, so I'm looking for reassurance that the government is going to keep running in the same direction on green energy," she told the Financial Times.

Brachlianoff believes that incinerating waste has the potential to supply around 2% of the U.K.'s total power demand.

In May this year, Industrial Info reported that Veolia and Covanta Holding Corporation (NYSE:CVA) (Morristown, New Jersey) had agreed to build a 50 MW bioenergy plant in Bedfordshire, England. The Rookery South Energy Recovery Facility near the town of Stewartby will be an EfW plant capable of burning up to 480,000 metric tonnes of municipal, commercial and industrial residual waste per year. It will cost approximately £100 million ($133 million) to construct and will be capable of powering up to 65,000 homes.

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