Industry

Controversial Plymouth incinerator hits full operation

Controversial Plymouth incinerator hits full operationA controversial giant waste incinerator on former dockyard land in Plymouth is now fully operational, after a €250-million (£188 million) building project.

Total construction of the MVV Environment’s Plymouth Energy from Waste Combined Heat and Power (EfW CHP) Facility at North Yard, Devonport, took just over three years.

The facility will incinerate around 245,000 tonnes per year of household, commercial and industrial residual waste. Around 163,000 tonnes of the waste will come from the local authorities involved with the South West Devon Waste Partnership, a partnership between Plymouth City Council, Torbay Council and Devon County Council. The partnership signed a 25-year, £796 million private-finance initiative residual waste contract with MVV in March 2011.

The company estimates that the incinerator will generate around 190,000 megawatt hours of electricity and 60,000 megawatt hours of steam for heating purposes per year.

An energy services deal with the Ministry of Defence means that 24 megawatts of the energy will be delivered to the neighbouring dockyard at Her Majesty’s Naval Base Devonport – the largest naval base in Western Europe – replacing natural gas based heating while potentially cutting CO2 emissions by around 77,000 tonnes a year.

The plant began accepting waste in September, but with the switching on of its combined heat and power capability is now running at full operation.

During its development, the EfW CHP facility received five national awards: the Grand Prix for the best national public-private partnership project (2012), the Considerate Constructors Scheme National Site award (2014), the Green Apple Environmental bronze award (2014), a Defence Infrastructure Organisation Sanctuary award (2015), and the Association of Decentralised Energy Public Sector award (2015).

Paul Carey, Managing Director of MVV Environment Devonport Ltd said: “This facility is among the top plants of its kind in Europe with regards to energy efficiency and technical standards…

 “Sustainability and a close link to the local community have always been main concerns during the development. Within the last four years, we have become an integral and acknowledged part of the Plymouth landscape.”

Opposition to the plant

The local community, however, has consistently voiced concerns over the incinerator, including the emissions that come out of its 95-metre chimney, and their concerns are being highlighted in a political row now that the plant is fully operational.

The plant, which was approved by the former Conservative administration, has been opposed by the local Labour Party, with Chair of Plymouth Labour Darren Winter telling local newspaper the Plymouth Herald yesterday (11 January): “I have spoken to many families who live in Barne Barton, and alongside environmental concerns I have received reports of noise and odour emanating from the site.

“These complaints will be looked into by myself and Labour councillors to ensure that local families are being listened to, and that the site and its owners are held to account, now and in the future.

“For the families of Barne Barton who live in its shadow and the wider area of St Budeaux, this is a permanent reminder of the damage a Conservative council was willing to inflict on it.”

The plant has also been criticised for failing to find a local outlet for the incinerator bottom ash that it produces as part of its process (it is reportedly being sent to the Netherlands), and for burning all of Plymouth’s residual waste, which currently includes food. Indeed, local anaerobic digestion operator Gary Jones believes that the building of the incinerator is behind the local council’s reluctance to introduce separate food waste collections.

He told the Herald: “Since the incinerator has been given the go ahead I haven’t got anywhere with [Plymouth City Council]. It cost £147 million and £97 million of that was from the public purse…

“The council don’t want to introduce separate kitchen caddy bins, which means everything would all go in one bin and they would burn the lot. We designed the AD to take all of Plymouth’s food waste.”

For more information see the MVV Energie website