Renewable energy firm Peel Energy has unveiled plans to develop a 200,000 tonnes-a-year capacity biomass facility in Trafford, which will use commercially and municipally-sourced waste wood as its primary feedstock.
Peel Energy – which is the renewable energy subsidiary of property and holdings firm Peel Group – intends to submit a planning application to Trafford council in the autumn. This would be with a view to the plant becoming operational in mid-2014.
Once complete, the plant is expected to generate 20MW of renewable energy from waste wood, agricultural residues from harvesting and processing, virgin timber residues from forestry processes and energy crops, such as coppiced willow and miscanthus.
A spokesman for Peel told letsrecycle.com: “Seventy per cent of the wood would be recovered from construction and demolition sources, as well as from aggregator companies collecting material from civic amenity sites.”
The spokesman added that the company was currently in negotiations with firms in the region over sourcing the feedstock rather than directly dealing with the councils. He said this was in order to allow Peel to receive large quantities of waste wood from companies aggregating the material rather than collecting small amounts periodically from a range of civic amenity sites.
Proposal
Commenting on the proposal, Jon England, project director at Peel Energy, said: “Our venture into dedicated biomass-fired energy generation will contribute towards government targets for higher levels of renewable electricity generation and help provide secure energy supplies for the region.”
The location of the plant has been selected due to its proximity to existing infrastructure and it would not require any new overhead cables and pylons as electricity generated would be distributed to the National Grid by an underground cable.
Peel said that this would allow renewable heat generated by the Barton plant to be fed to businesses and local houses via an underground pipe network.
Consultation
The company is set to consult with Trafford and Salford councils, the Environment Agency, the Highways Agency, members of the public and other organisations about the proposal.
Mr England said: “We are keen to hear from as many interested parties as possible during our consultation phase and I would encourage you to drop in and see is at the public consultation.”
A public consultation is being held at the Powerleague Trafford Soccer Dome next week on Tuesday July 20 and Wednesday 21.
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