The facility, capable of processing up to 180,000 tonnes-per-year of household waste, will be located adjacent to Bombardier’s wing facility in Belfast’s Harbour Estate, and is set to cost a total of £107 million to build.
Bouygues Energies and Services is to design, build and operate the facility, which is expected to be operational by late 2017, and will provide energy through a power purchase agreement (PPA) to the adjacent Bombardier plant.
GIB has made its investment in the 14.85 MW plant as part of a joint venture – Full Circle Generation – with developer RiverRidge Energy Limited, Equitix and P3P Partners.
Waste
The plant will be fuelled by feedstock derived from household and commercial waste through a long-term feedstock contract with waste management company Pioneer Fuels. It will generate around 61 GWh of renewable electricity annually.
Consent has so far been granted for the facility to treat a total of 120,000 tonnes of waste per year, but developers may seek to increase this to make use of the full capacity of the plant.
Shaun Kingsbury, chief executive of the UK GIB, said: “Northern Ireland was the location of one of GIB’s earliest investments and it gives us great pleasure to announce another important commitment to the country’s green infrastructure network. The plant will generate cleaner, greener electricity that can be used to the benefit of local employers while helping local authorities and businesses meet waste reduction targets.”
Brett Ross, managing director of RiverRidge Energy Limited and RiverRidge Recycling Limited, said: “This is a significant day for not only the Northern Irish waste management sector, but also the Northern Irish economy as a whole. The delivery of this critical piece of infrastructure provides a number of stakeholders with a world-class facility capable of recovering energy from waste in an environmentally sensitive and acceptable manner as well as the provision of a meaningful base load of renewable energy for Bombardier.”
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