Covanta partners with Peel on 500m eco-park

The £500 million development received planning permission in August 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story) and is to be located at Ince Marshes, adjacent to the Stanlow Oil Refinery on the south bank of the Manchester Ship Canal about 10 miles to the east of Chester.

It will be run by Ince Park LLP, a joint venture partnership between US-based incineration giant Covanta and Peel.

The agreement will see Covanta design, build, own and operate an energy-from-waste facility at the heart of the park which will turn household and business waste into up to 95MW of electricity, much of which can be redeployed on site. Construction of the EfW facility is anticipated to start in 2011.

Peel Environmental and Covanta will jointly market the remainder of the 126-acre site to organisations in the waste and environmental sectors.

They will promote the use of the Manchester Ship Canal's deep water berth for the transportation of goods to and from the eco-park as well as its rail sidings and access to the M56 motorway. About 50 acres of the site has already been earmarked for extensive landscaping and a nature reserve.

Myles Kitcher, director of Peel Environmental, said: “We are delighted to have found a partner in Covanta who is committed to delivering the EfW plant at the earliest possible opportunity.

“This means that we are looking at several hundred construction jobs over a three year period in addition to creating more than 1,000 full time jobs across the full Ince site. Jobs we promised during the planning process will now become a reality.”

Resource

The concept behind the eco-park is to treat waste as a resource. Owen Michaelson, chairman of Peel Environmental, said: “We need to make more careful use of the earth's resources. I believe we should make efficient use of the waste that remains after recycling and maximise our use of renewable resources.

“This will enable us to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. We must use our precious mineral resources in a responsible manner and only as part of a balanced energy policy.”

Covanta's UK managing director, Malcolm Chilton, added: “Our energy-from-waste facility will be the heart of the eco-park which we believe will be a model for the future. It represents the most sensible and viable alternative to our country's current over reliance on landfill for municipal and business waste.

“It will provide the energy and means to truly make recycling and reprocessing a reality and not just an aspiration.”

Covanta

Covanta Energy currently operates 45 EfW plants worldwide and processes in excess of 18 million tonnes of municipal waste each year. The company entered the UK in 2005, with an office at Kingswinford in the West Midlands and is building up its European operation through this team.

In September 2007, the company signed a contract for the development of a 600,000 tonne-per-year capacity energy-from-waste facility in Poolbeg, Dublin.

Commenting on the agreement, Scott Whitney, Covanta's European president, said: “By combining the strengths of Peel Environmental and Covanta Energy we will provide an environmentally beneficial and economical method for dealing with residual waste. The synergies are fantastic and I am optimistic we will find other similar projects to work on together.”