Plevins wins lucrative deal to supply E.ON plant

The Greater Manchester-based company has secured a multi-million pound deal to be the sole supplier of waste wood feedstock to a 120 million biomass plant being developed by energy giant E.ON at Blackburn Meadowsnear Sheffield. The contract will last for the life-time of the plant, which would normally span 25 years.

The announcement came as E.ON revealed that construction of the 120 million facility, which received planning permission in 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story) is due to start later this month (November 2011). Once operational in 2014, the plantwill generate up to 30MW, enough to power 40,000 homes.

E.ON already owns and operates a 44MW dedicated biomass plant at Steven’s Croft, near Lockerbie, which also burns waste wood (see letsrecycle.com story).

R Plevin & Sons managing director Jamie Plevin said: This contract marks an extremely significant milestone in the growth of our company, and we are naturally thrilled. In order to meet the demand, we will be creating new jobs at our existing sites as well as opening a number of new facilities at strategic locations.

This geographical expansion will happen either through acquisitions, or through opening new sites ourselves. I would like to reassure our existing customers that this contract will not affect them, as we will be increasing capacity in order to meet the heightened demand.

The waste wood provided to E.ON will come from council civic amenity sites, skip hire firms, pallet manufacturers and joinery workshops. This will be processedinto pelletsprior to delivery to E.ON. The exact tonnage is commercially sensitive.

Regarding new facilities,Plevin said that “weare exploring a number of strategic locations around the country. We wouldnt rule anywhere out at this stage.”

Luke Ellis, project manager at E.ON, said: It was important to us to use UK-sourced recycled waste wood to power the Blackburn Meadows plant. We look forward to working with R Plevin & Sons.

Expansion

According to Plevin, the contract with E.ON will enable it to create a raft of new jobs at its existing sites and embark on an ambitious expansion programme.

Plevin is a major UK wood processing and recycling companies collecting, processing and distributing 600,000 tonnes of wood a year. It employs 150 people across six sites Mossley, Greater Manchester; Elkesley, Nottinghamshire; Boston, Lincolnshire; Newport, South Wales; Kings Lynn, Norfolk and Slimbridge, Gloucestershire.

The company manufactures a range of wood-based products from virgin and waste wood materials. It sources waste wood from council civic amenity sites, skip hire firms, pallet manufacturers and joinery workshops.

E.ON

The E.ON site, situated approximately 5.5km north east of Sheffield city centre, has a strong heritage of power production and what E.ON describes as excellent links to electricity infrastructure and transport networks. It is expected that the site will create around 30 full-time jobs within the local area once operational in mid 2014.

Announcing today that construction on the facility is due to start next month, Dave Rogers, regional director for renewables at E.ON, said: “The plans we’ve announced not only set out the final design of the power station but also confirm our intention to begin construction later this month.

“As our commitment to Sheffield demonstrates, we’re leading the development of renewable energy in the UK and biomass power stations, such as Blackburn Meadows, form an important part of that low carbon solution”.