Pennon signs energy from waste deal
PENNON the French waste management firm, is to build a new energy from waste plant in the UK that will treat 60,000 tonnes of household rubbish.
The company’s subsidiary, Viridon, which specialises in recycling, has signed a deal with Devon county council and will spend £45m building the plant on the site of the former incinerator at Marsh Barton, near Exeter.
TIRU, a French firm which operates a similar waste facility in Lincolnshire, won the contract to run the plant on behalf of Viridor for five years.
“The Exeter project is part of its long term strategic partnership with Devon County Council designed to assist Devon in achieving its landfill diversion targets,” Colin Drummond, chief executive of Viridor, said in a statement.
“The new plant will have an electrical power generation capacity of around 3MW and will come on stream by 2014.”
At that time Viridor is expected to have around 1m tonnes of energy from waste disposal capacity and 200MW of renewable energy capacity.”
Landfill is an increasingly unattractive option for waste management as landfill tax, currently set at £46 per tonne, is set to rise steeply each year by £8 until it reaches £80 per tonne in 2014.
Pennon group has several projects, including two other plants in the UK and has submitted planning applications for four more energy from waste plants across the UK.
Viridor’s UK projects also include Runcorn in Cheshire, which will be the biggest waste management plant in Europe.