Valued at £80 million over the course of the contract, the deal began on 3 May 2021 and will run until May 2041, according to a tender document published on Monday (10 May).
The local authority is responsible for the management and control of landfill gas from the site. It is to export power to the electricity grid network. While landfill gas at the site is declining, the council says initially it will generate approximately 800kWh of electricity each year.
A spokesperson for Essex county council told letsrecycle.com: “RPS were selected based on their ability to manage the declining landfill gas from the site for the 20-year period and based on the proportion of income from electricity sales offered to the council.”
The council will receive a proportion of the income from electricity sales.
Declining yields
Bedford-based RPS is said to have beaten one other bidder to the contract. The company was established 25 years ago and is a specialist in landfill gas-fuelled power generation schemes.
While RPS runs landfill gas projects across Scotland, England and Northern Ireland, the company’s director Andrew Leach told letsrecycle.com the Bellhouse Closed Landfill Site deal was different because it provided a solution for declining landfill gas yields.
Mr Leach said: “It’s a contract that addresses the final stages at the site right through to when it stops producing landfill gas.”
He added: “People will have the satisfaction of using power generated from their own waste.”
Bellhouse Closed Landfill Site
The Bellhouse Closed Landfill Site is now closed to waste and is being restored as public open space. It is also used to graze cattle.
“People will have the satisfaction of using power generated from their own waste”
In 1999 Essex county council awarded Combined Landfill Projects (CLP) an initial 15-year contract to use the landfill gas generated at the Bellhouse Closed Landfill Site by burning it in landfill gas engines to produce electricity.
The gas produced at the site is mainly methane.
In a report from July 2014 the council said the contract proved “very successful”, generating 3MW of electricity when gas production was at its peak. In 2014 the plant was generating 1.4MW as the waste decomposed and produced less gas.
The council’s deal with CLP provided it with an annual income of approximately £100,000 before it ended in January 2015.
CLP’s deal was extended on a year-by-year basis until a tender was launched last year, leading to Renewable Power Systems signed the new contract this week.
The council-managed Bellhouse Closed Landfill Site is separate to the Bellhouse Landfill Site operated by specialist Enovert, which still accepts waste and is also located in Stanway.
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