Construction at Newport in the centre of the island began last September. Trials are currently underway to process waste supplied by Island Waste Services – a subsidiary of Biffa which handles waste on the Isle of Wight. Full operations are expected next month.
Nick Dawber, managing director of Energos, said: “This is a landmark step for new generation energy from waste technologies. This is the first project of its type to qualify for ROCs and with government support under the Renewables Obligation we can roll out our ambitious expansion plan across the UK.
“We have the potential to make a significant contribution to the government's ambitious renewables target, with a typical Energos plant generating 8MW of green electricity per hour. This is sufficient to power 10,000 homes and would equate to the output 18 large wind turbines,” he added.
Regulation
The ROC is part of the government's Renewables Obligation, which is imposed on all electrical suppliers to ensure that 10% of all electricity in the UK is generated from renewable sources by 2010. To encourage greater investment, the government recently extended the timescale to 2016 and the value of a ROC to £45 per MWh.
Energos anticipates that its Isle of Wight gasification plant will exceed a 60% renewable resources level, dependent on the portion of biomass involved in the process passing regulation checks. In the process the biodegradable portion of the waste is counted as biomass and cannot exceed limits set by the Renewables Obligation Order and the Climate Change Levy Regulations.
Defra
The project was part of Defra's New Technology Demonstrator Programme, which funded 35% (£2.7m) of the £8m bill. Defra is hopeful the Isle of Wight plant will reach its target of generating 2.3MW of green electricity from non-recyclable, residual waste, enough to power 3,000 homes.
The accreditation of the plant is good news for Defra after a proposed gasification site in East London was withdrawn last August (see letsrecycle.com story).
Process
Energos, which is part of Manchester-based ENER-G Plc, uses an advanced thermal treatment that utilizes the heat of partial combustion to turn residual waste into gas. The company has been using its own patented gasification technology for the past eight years in six plants.
Residual waste is fed into the gasification chamber where it is converted into syngas which is then transferred to an oxidation chamber where it is fully oxidised in a controlled environment that enables much tighter control than can be achieved in conventional energy from waste plants – resulting in extremely low emissions. The resulting heat is recovered to produce steam and/or electricity.
Eco Island
According to Energos, the plant will help ensure that the Isle of Wight is one of the best performing councils in terms of responsible waste management and also help to reduce the amount of valuable landfill space the island uses. Cllr Tim Hunter-Henderson greeted the move as putting the Isle of Wight at the forefront of waste management and the gasification plant is a considerable move towards creating an ‘Eco Island'.
Energos
Energos currently has the contract to build an 80,000 tonne plant in Sarpsbourg, Norway and has planning permission for facility of the same size in Irvine, Scotland. The company has also recently held public exhibitions for residents of Knowsley, Merseyside, to allow them to find out more about a proposed small scale facility in the area.
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