News

June 4th 2007

£80 million Renewable Electricity Power Station Granted Planning Permission

North East Lincolnshire’s planning authority voted unanimously this week to grant a planning consent for the UK’s first food waste to renewable electricity power station. The plant, to be developed by Inetec’s wholly owned subsidiary, EnCycle, will divert up to 180,000 tonnes of waste away from landfill and generate 24MW of green electricity.

It will be developed at the existing 11 acre site in an old railway decomissioning building, and is the first of its kind to be developed in Europe. The £80 million centre will be the first of a series of ten plants to be strategically located in the UK.

During construction the plant will generate around 70 jobs, and once operational the plant will employ in excess of 60 operators, with further employment opportunities created at the logistics companies contracted to deliver the waste to the site.

The centre should help to promote further investment into North East Lincolnshire by other food producers by providing a sustainable, cost effective solution for this type of convenience food waste stream, avoiding landfill as a disposal mechanism. The centre will contribute to a reduction in their carbon footprint and importantly safeguard about 14,000 existing jobs in the food production sector within the region, by providing this solution at a fixed cost to these companies.

Peter Corris, Director of EnCycle, says “We are delighted that the planning authority consented to our application. This shows that they are a forward thinking planning authority, committed to meeting government targets for the region in relation to landfill diversion and renewable energy generation.”

He continues, ”This represents a significant milestone in EnCycle’s plan to develop a nationwide infrastructure comprising of ten plants, which will divert a combined total of over one million tonnes of food and non-recyclable packaging waste away from landfill.

“The demand for a solution such as EnCycle has been growing rapidly over the past five years due to rapid growth in sales of ready meals and pre-packaged “convenience” foods. Previously existing solutions which were available could only process elements of the waste produced during the manufacture of such foods, but now EnCycle’s solution can meet all the requirements of the manufacturer by offering a cost effective, environmentally sustainable disposal route.“

For more information visit www.encycle.co.uk or www.inetec.co.uk