However, Glennmont Partners are “not in a position” to confirm what the future will hold for the £160 million plant, which was initially due to be operational in early 2018 but was hit by delays.
In April 2019, the plant was “mothballed” as its main contractors Babcock & Wilcox Volund reached a settlement with Glenmont to exit the Stockton-on-Tee-based site, and Glennmont pledged at the time to work on a solution for the plant.
In a statement given to letsrecycle.com this morning (03 January), a spokesperson from Glennmont said: “Every effort is being made to find a positive outcome for the project. Progress is being made but Glennmont Partners aren’t yet in a position to confirm what will be the future for the project.”
Construction of the facility began in 2015 and around 40 people were employed on the site, which was thought to have risen to around 300 during peak construction.
Situated on the banks of the River Tees at Clarence Works, the facility secured planning permission from Stockton-on-Tees borough council in 2014.
Funding was provided by Glenmont Partners with debt arranged and provided by Deutsche Bank and Danske Bank, supported by EKF, the export credit agency of Denmark.
Once completed the plant was planned to generate 40MW of energy per year.
Supply
Stobart won a contract to supply the plant with 250,000 tonnes of waste wood in 2015 (see letsrecycle.com story).
When the deal was announced, it was said that the company would begin supplying wood from both commercial and local authority sources from late 2017, with around 3.5 million tonnes of material sent to Port Clarence over the lifetime of the contract.
Murray Paterson, who was then UK biomass manager at Glennmont Partners, said the plant would divert waste wood which otherwise would be been sent to landfill.
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