Work begins on Viridor’s £154m Glasgow plant

The 200,000 tonnes-per-year capacity Glasgow Recycling and Renewable Energy Centre in Polmadie to the south of the city is the cornerstone of a 25-year waste treatment contract worth £254 million between Viridor and Glasgow city council (see letsrecycle.com story).

Once completed, it will include mechanical biological treatment, anaerobic digestion and gasification technology provided by Energos, alongside a materials recycling facility (MRF).

As well as assisting the council to increase recycling within the city with up to 18% of recyclate being extracted from the residual waste per year, the plant is expected to have 1.8 million tonnes of thermal treatment capacity and over 250MW of renewable energy capacity.

Planning

Viridor was granted planning permission for the regenerated site in January this year (see letsrecycle.com story). The contract is expected to create 175 construction jobs and 75 service positions, with 50 at Polmadie.

Consultancy firm SLR, which handled the procurement as technical advisor for the council, yesterday welcomed news that work had begun on the plant, which is due to be completed in early 2016.

Technical director Derek Rooney said: We developed a strong partnership approach with Glasgow city council and by ensuring that we shared our knowledge on a day to day basis with the council team, this knowledge transfer allowed them to develop a greater understanding of complex procurement models and Competitive Dialogue.

The councils executive director of land and environmental services, Brian Devlin, added: SLRs multi-disciplinary expertise was invaluable in helping us to successfully procure the facility and they continue to work closely with our in house experts on waste related projects.

Viridor was put forward as the preferred bidder for the Glasgow contract by the councils procurement project board at an executive committee meeting in December 2011.

The decision ended a two year procurement process which saw it stave off competition from Biffa, Glasgow Renewables, and SNE; a consortium comprised of Scottish and Southern Energy and Shanks.