Waste management firm Biffa has announced that it is to submit plans for a 300,000 tonnes-a-year capacity commercial and industrial waste incinerator to Leeds city council later this month or in early September.
The plant would be built at the former Skelton Grange coal-fire power station site in the east of the city. It would treat commercial and industrial waste sourced from the local region and Biffa's Skelton Grange landfill site, which is 1.6 miles away.
Once operational, it is anticipated that the plant, known as an energy recovery facility (ERF), would be able to produce 21MW of energy, which Biffa said was enough to power 48,000 households in the surrounding area.
The facility is expected to be operational in 2014, with Swiss engineering specialist AE&E Inova being appointed as the technology contractor.
Commenting on the proposal, Simon Allin, Biffa development director, said: “The site has been identified as suitable in principle for waste management use, including for energy recovery from waste in emerging planning policy documents.
“Leeds city council's published plans for the regeneration of the Aire Valley describe it as the ‘window to Leeds'. We have therefore selected a striking design for the proposed ERF, and with associated landscaping we consider that this will do much to improve the visual appearance of this locality and attract further high quality employment and wealth creating development to the area.”
Municipal
Once a planning application is submitted, Leeds city council said that a full Environmental Impact Assessment of the site would be required. And, the pre-application scoping report also states that “should the need arise, the facility would also be able to accept municipal waste”.
However, the planning officer notes the council's long-term municipal waste treatment contract, which is currently in procurement, is predicated on the development of a separate large-scale incinerator in of east Leeds – less than three miles from Biffa's planned site.
The final two bidders for the deal, which has £68.6 million in PFI-funding, are Veolia Environmental Services and the Aire Valley Environmental consortium.
Veolia has proposed a 190,000 tonnes-a-year capacity incinerator in the industrialised area of Cross Green, while Aire Valley has outlined plans for a 230,000 tonnes-a-year capacity plant on a different site but also in Cross Green (see letsrecycle.com story).
Leeds, which cut its shortlist to two in February 2010, expects to name a successful bidder for the municipal waste treatment contract in February 2011.
Subscribe for free