The Port Clarence Renewable Energy Plant, owned by UK financial institution Glennmont Partners, will have capacity to treat an estimated 325,000 tonnes of waste wood per year.
Construction of the plant is being carried out by Babcock Wilcox Lagan in partnership with Eco2. Around 40 people are employed on the site, which is due to rise to 300 at the peak of the build.
Much of the throughput for the site will come from Stobart Energy, which is contracted to supply around 250,000 tonnes of waste wood fuel annually under a 14-year agreement (see letsrecycle.com story).
Remaining feedstock for the plant will be sourced from construction and demolition sites, civic amenity sites and packaging.
Power
The plant will generate around 40MW of power, the equivalent of powering around 75,000 homes in Tees Valley and elsewhere in the North East.
Situated on the banks of the River Tees at Clarence Works, the facility secured planning permission from Stockton-on-Tees borough council in 2014. The development is the largest of its kind that can be approved at a local authority level.
On entering full commercial operations in 2018, the Port Clarence plant will join RWE’s Markinch facility, E.ON’s Blackburn Meadows and Dalkia’s Pollington plant as the latest in a line of major biomass facilities operating in the north of England and Scotland.
Leader of Stockton-on-Tees borough council, councillor Bob Cook, welcomed the investment in the region.
He said: “Glennmont’s investment in our borough is certainly welcomed as through the introduction of technologies such as biomass they can help grow our economy and create jobs for local people. I am delighted to see the Port Clarence Energy project begin to come to fruition and I’m looking forward to residents and businesses benefitting from the energy it will produce.
“The council is committed to working with the private sector to help them explore opportunities to develop renewable energy products like this which will help to reduce carbon emissions.”
Infrastructure
Murray Paterson, UK biomass manager at Glennmont Partners, added: “The existing road and electrical infrastructure makes the Port Clarence area an ideal location for our renewable energy facility. We greatly appreciate the support that Stockton-on-Tees borough council has given to the project so far and we will work closely with the council through the project’s construction and eventual operation.
“The Port Clarence Energy scheme will mean new jobs being created but equally important, it will be generating renewable energy from waste wood that would otherwise have gone to landfill. Port Clarence Energy is good for the local economy and the local environment.”
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