Greenlight for Air Products' first renewable energy project in UK
10 Aug 2011
London – Air Products has secured planning permission from Stockton on Tees Borough Council for its Tees Valley Renewable Energy Facility. The facility is the first of a number of energy from waste plants that Air Products will be looking to develop in the UK over the next few years.
The gasification energy-from-waste (EfW) scheme, located at the New Energy and Technology Business Park, near Billingham, Teesside will convert pre-processed household and commercial waste currently going to landfill into baseload, renewable power for up to 50,000 homes in the North East. Producing 49MW of electricity from about 300,000 tonnes of waste, the facility is one of the largest advanced gasification projects planned for the UK.
Ian Williamson, European hydrogen and bioenergy director at Air Products said: “We’re really pleased to have secured Stockton Council’s approval for our first energy from waste project in the UK. Our facility will be using the latest and most advanced gasification technology to generate renewable power and at the same time, contribute towards Stockton Council’s environment, energy and economic investment objectives.”
The 49MW Tees Valley Renewable Energy Facility is Air Products’ first advanced gasification energy scheme to be developed in the UK. The company anticipates that between 500 and 700 people will be employed during the project’s construction phase with 50 permanent jobs being created once the facility enters commercial operation.
Air Products said it hopes to build up to five advanced gasification plants in the UK in the coming years, amounting to an investment of more than £1bn and with the potential to generate around 250MW of electricity.
“Air Products, along with our technology partner, AlterNRG, see Tees Valley as the first of a number of advanced gasification facilities that we wish to develop in the UK, Williamson said.
“In the longer-term, our technology can also produce renewable hydrogen and is being considered for a demonstration of Waste2Tricity’s fuel cell technology. So our renewable energy facility could also play a part in the further development of the hydrogen economy, an area in which Air Products already has considerable experience,” he added.
The company has taken the project through the planning process in close collaboration with the site’s owners, Impetus Waste Management, and its planning and environmental consultant, Atkins.
Subject to the financing of the project given current support mechanisms and securing environmental permitting consent from the Environment Agency, work on site could start next year, with commercial operations starting in 2014.
