Government approves 60MW biomass and waste power plant

The government today completed a bumper week for the UK's burgeoning waste-to-energy sector, giving the green light to plans for a new 60MW power plant to be built at a disused site at Tilbury Docks in Essex.

Tilbury Green Power Limited, a subsidiary of renewable energy developer Express Energy and the company behind the proposal, said the new power plant would be fuelled by waste and biomass.

It added that the disused docks were the perfect location for the project, as much of the fuel will be able to be shipped by barge, limiting pressure on local roads.

Announcing planning permission for the site, energy and climate change minister Lord Hunt said the decision was in line with the government's wider climate change strategy.

“If we are to tackle climate change, we must reduce the amount of waste going to landfill and also make use of renewable sources of fuel," he said. "This power station will achieve both those objectives by turning waste into energy and using biomass, which will also contribute to delivering the UK’s renewable energy targets."

He added that the three-year construction project will also create up to 380 jobs, while the plant will employ a further 120 people once it is operational.

The news comes in the same week as waste management firm Viridor announced that the Environment Agency (EA) had dropped its objections to its plans to build a 24MW energy-from-waste facility at its landfill and recycling site in Oxfordshire.

The Agency informed the company that it was satisfied "all significant environmental impacts have been properly assessed", providing a further boost to the project after the Highways Agency said it too was happy with the plans.

Robert Ryan, project manager at Viridor, said the company was "delighted" with the EA's decision. "We are confident that our submission is comprehensive and that we have addressed all issues brought to our attention by the local community and the statutory bodies," he said. "It is now for the planning authority to determine our application and we look forward to its resolution."

Meanwhile, anaerobic digestion specialist Farmgen said this week that it was hopeful that plans for a £2.5m flagship project in Lancashire could be given the go-ahead within two months.

The company said that following consultation with local residents, it had scaled down the proposed size of the anaerobic digestor from 840kw to 800kw, to ensure the maize crops that will power the plant can be sourced from surrounding fields, reducing the need for crops to arrive at the site by road.

"We have listened to what people have had to say and have taken on board a number of their interesting and helpful suggestions in drawing up our revised proposals," said Ed Cattigan, chief operating officer at the company. "The plan we have submitted will reduce the number of agricultural vehicles on local roads, will bring fields back into production, tidy up the site and create an eco-friendly plant that will not be intrusive to people living in the area."