Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) has entered into a 50:50 joint venture with American incineration specialist Wheelabrator Technologies to develop a 300 million multi-fuel energy-from-waste facility at Ferrybridge in West Yorkshire.
The joint venture, known as Multifuel Energy Ltd (MFE), expects to start work on the 68 megawatt plant later this year, with work due to be completed by 2015. Construction will be undertaken by Swiss EfW specialist Hitachi Zosen Inova (formerly Von Roll Inova).
The facility will burn a variety of waste-derived fuels, including biomass, waste wood and solid recovered fuel to generate heat and electricity. Solid recovered fuel (SRF) will be supplied by 3SE, a joint venture involving SSE and Shanks which signed a 750 million contract with the Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham waste partnership last week (see letsrecycle.com story).
The fuel will be produced from residual household waste at a mechanical biological treatment (MBT) plant and anaerobic digestion (AD) facility being developed by Shanks at Bolton Road, Manvers. Planning permission for the MBT and AD plant was granted conditionally by Rotherham Metropolitan borough councils Planning Board at a meeting on April 5.
Partnership
Planning permission for the Ferrybridge energy-from-waste plant was granted by the Department of Energy and Climate Change in October 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Commenting on the development, SSEs managing director of generation, Paul Smith, said: Multi-fuel technology is a tried and tested way of generating clean, base-load power. This new multi-fuel plant will provide additional diversity to SSEs generation portfolio and make a useful contribution to ensuring we have reliable energy supplies for the future.
The transactions that make up this project represent a strong partnership between four major players in the multi-fuel sector, who are committed to making a serious level of investment in this technology. Between them the companies involved have extensive experience in sourcing and processing waste, constructing and commissioning multi-fuel technologies, and operating generation plant. This partnership creates a great platform to develop multi-fuel technology in future.
Construction
Construction of the multi-fuel plant will be carried out by Hitachi Zosen Inova creating hundreds of jobs over the three-year period. Once construction is complete over 50 full time jobs will be created.
Tony McShane, project director at Hitachi Zosen Inova, said: We are very proud that SSE / Wheelabrator have awarded this prestigious project to Hitachi Zosen Inova. We believe that our continuous investment in enhanced technology coupled with our track record of successful turn-key project delivery were major factors in the decision making of SSE and Wheelabrator.
Capacity
The facility will be built next to SSEs existing coal-fired power station in Ferrybridge. MFE said that the multi-fuel plant at Ferrybridge is not intended to replace the 1,000 megawatts of capacity provided by the existing plant which is closing in 2015.
Commenting on the construction Gary Aguinaga, managing director of Wheelabrator Technologies UK, said: On-site preparation work is underway and full construction will begin in the summer. This will provide employment for hundreds of workers over the three year building phase and we look forward to the Ferrybridge multi-fuel facility being fully operational by summer 2015.”
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