Ardley EfW receives first waste delivery

The first load of household waste arrived at Viridors 200 million energy-from-waste plant in Oxfordshire today (June 6).

The 300,000 tonne-a-year capacity plant in Ardley received an estimated nine tonnes of residual household waste from Oxford, the first of the initial 20 vehicle deliveries expected per day in the initial months of operations.

The delivery follows completion of the majority of civil construction work on the site by contractor CNIM Clugston, and an end to the cold-commissioning phase of the plant which began in February this year.

Viridor has also began steam blowing today as part of the ongoing commissioning process, which sees the waste firm test the temperatures the facility will need to withstand once fully operational.

Waste is now being accepted in order to test the cranes and other equipment prior to start-up of the facility, which is scheduled for late June.

Commenting on progress to date, Edward Thomas, project director at Viridor, said: This first delivery of waste marks the completion of the cold-commissioning phase, preparing us to begin processing waste later this month commonly known as hot-commissioning. We are proud that our contractors are progressing apace to deliver a fully operational first-class facility later this year.

Contract

The Ardley facility is part of a 25-year deal with Oxfordshire county council signed in March 2011 to treat residual municipal waste from the authority (see letsrecycle.com story).

Under the deal, Viridor is expected to treat an initial 150,000 tonnes a year in Oxfordshire with additional capacity to be potentially filled with commercial waste. The plant is combined heat and power (CHP) enabled and will generate up to 25MW of electricity for the Grid.

The facility had to overcome numerous planning hurdles before it was given the green light from communities secretary Eric Pickles in 2011 after an original application was rejected by the county councils planning committee in October 2009.

Speaking today, Oxfordshires cabinet member for environment councillor David Nimmo Smith, said: I was delighted to see the first waste vehicle going into the facility. This is a major milestone towards the start of a waste treatment service that will divert most of Oxfordshires residual waste from landfill and use it to generate electricity. We look forward to the successful completion of the facility and these benefits becoming a reality.

Exeter

Meanwhile, Viridor has also announced today that its Exeter Energy Recovery Facility has started exporting up to 3MW of electricity to the National Grid prior to full-scale operations beginning next month.

The 60,000 tonne-a-year capacity energy-from-waste plant, which is currently being commissioned at Marsh Barton, is part of a contract signed with Devon county council in 2011.