Green light for first energy park

Green light for first energy park

London - Peterborough Renewable Energy Ltd (PREL) has promised a landfill-free future after getting the Government go-ahead to build the first 'energy park' in the UK that will take mixed waste and recycle and remanufacture every single element to produce renewable energy, glass, building blocks, metals and compounds.

The 'energy park' will be the first in what PREL says could become a nationwide network, which will fundamentally change the way that we deal with mixed waste in the UK, eliminating all need for future landfill, creating renewable energy and producing higher value goods. No other renewable energy project, it argues, has offered this complete cycle, with most being labelled by environmentalists as unsustainable, as residues from the gasification process still needing to be buried.

PREL has put eight years of work into this project, combining expertise in materials and the environment, to ensure that these residues can be captured and remanufactured, allowing the energy park to deliver up to 100% recycling and offer positive carbon benefits. A single plant, it estimates, could save 600,000 tonnes of CO2 per year and producing enough renewable energy to power 60,000 homes.

PREL's process brings together mechanical recycling, food waste digestion, gasification, and plasma melting - in one location - to provide a zero-landfill solution for society’s rubbish.

The first energy park will be built in Peterborough and will bring over 300 jobs during the construction phase and 109 skilled green collar jobs once operational. If rolled out to achieve the 4000mw of biomass power needed to meet the renewable requirement for 2020 for the UK, said PREL. A network of energy parks, it added, could deliver a saving of 36 million tonnes of GHG's and create over 5000 jobs.

"This plant will provide reliable, low carbon energy for years to come," said: David Kidney, UK energy and climate change minister. "The UK needs to generate 15% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, and energy from biomass could contribute as much as a third of that. Meeting our target means we have to follow the East of England’s example and build more plants like this.”

Managing Director of PREL Chris Williams, added: “As a nation we have set ourselves very ambitious renewables targets and only by embracing renewable technologies such as PREL’s will we be able to achieve these. Waste can be a valuable resource and using it in a sustainable way will play an essential role in making our future more green."