Air Products taps Tolent for Tees Valley project
18 Feb 2013
London – Air Products has awarded Tolent Construction the civil engineering contract for its Tees Valley Renewable Energy Facility.
Tolent Construction, whose workforce is entirely Teesside based, will be responsible for recruiting specialists in site preparation, reinforcement fixing, concrete supply and underground piping.
Air Products’ renewable energy facility is expected to create up to 700 construction jobs. Currently 63% of construction employees live within 25 miles of the site at the New Energy and Technology Business Park near Billingham, Teesside.
Once the facility comes into operation in 2014, it will also permanently employ over 50 people, helping to revitalize the local economy and grow a green skills base in advanced clean technology in the North East of England.
Air Products works with all of its contractors to encourage them to hire locally wherever possible. Our main employment contractor is Foster Wheeler Construction Management Personnel, which itself employs over 50 people in Teesside.
The facility in Billingham is the first to use advanced gasification technology in the UK, and the largest of its kind anywhere in the world with an approximate capacity of 50MW. It is an important contributor to the increased “green technology” activity that is occurring in the North East and boosting the region’s reputation as a skilled technology hub.
Every year up to 350 kilotonnes of non-recyclable waste will be diverted from landfill and taken to Air Products waste-to-energy facility, helping decrease the regional need for landfill sites. There it will be converted into the renewable power using advanced gasification technology, which is a more efficient, cleaner conversion of waste-to-power than traditional energy-from-waste (EfW) technologies.
“Air Products has been working on Teesside for many years and we appreciate the level of skilled, professional people in the region such as those working for Tolent,” commented David J. Taylor, VP energy business, Air Products.
