Spanish-owned Mercia plans 120m Worcs EfW plant

The company intends to develop the treatment facility, which will produce both heat and electricity, at the Hartlebury Trading Estate in Kidderminster and add to existing facilities built under the deal, which include a £10 million materials recycling facility at Norton.

The PFI deal was signed in December 1998 and involves Mercia Waste Management working alongside Severn Waste Services. The two companies are jointly owned by Focsa and Urbaser, who are in turn owned by Spanish waste giants FCC – who also own Waste Recycling Group – and ACS respectively.

Development of the plant – which will be known as Mercia EnviRecover – is expected to cost around £120 million and, when built, it will generate 15.5 MW of electricity when it becomes fully operational, which Mercia hopes will happen in quarter two of 2014.

John Plant, director and shareholder of Mercia, said: “Mercia EnviRecover is the final piece of our integrated sustainable waste solution for the people of Herefordshire and Worcestershire, one which complements and supports waste reduction, reuse and recycling.”

Mercia hopes to submit a formal application for the plant in March 2010, but explained that it had unveiled the plans now to allow it to undertake an extensive consultation with residents and stakeholders.

Councils

Currently Herefordshire and Worcestershire produce 390,000 tonnes of waste a year combined. Out of this figure, 200,000 tonnes is currently landfilled with a further 30,000 tonnes being sent to energy-from-waste facilities outside of the two counties.

The EnviRecover facility is intended to fit with the review of the two counties' Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy which was undertaken earlier this month – which outlined a preference for energy-from-waste with combined heat and power capability to treat residual waste in the region.

Councillor Anthony Blagg, Worcestershire county council cabinet member for waste and sustainability, said: “Our recent review of the Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy reinforced the need to find a solution for dealing with the remainder of the household waste in a way that maximises the recovery of resources and energy.

“We welcome Mercia's proposal and look forward to taking it to our Cabinet for full and detailed consideration before the end of this year.”

Previous application

A spokeswoman for Mercia stressed that the application was not linked to an application for an energy-from-waste facility at a site in Kidderminster in 2000 which was refused.

Speaking to letsrecycle.com, she said: “There are nine or 10 years between the two proposals going in but it is to deal with the same waste which cannot be recycled in Herefordshire and Worcestershire. It is a completely separate proposal and the company has been working very hard to get it to this stage.”