Major UK waste-to-energy facility receives planning permission

A waste-to-energy facility in Teesside, UK, has received planning permission.

The £300 million (€339 million) facility, a joint venture led by Low Carbon and PMAC Energy, will export up to 49.9 MW of low-carbon electricity to the grid, enough to power 10,000 homes, when complete.

The Redcar Energy Centre is set for completion in 2025 and will divert between 350,000 and 450,000 tonnes per annum of refuse away from landfill.

The planning permission includes consent for the development of a materials recovery facility (MRF) adjacent to the Energy Centre. The MRF will be able to process and recycle up to 200,000 tonnes of municipal, commercial, and industrial waste each year, extracting valuable metals for recovery.

The Redcar Energy Centre is expected to become a cornerstone development for the UK’s largest industrial zone as part of the South Tees Development Corporation’s ambitious redevelopment goals, providing heat and electricity to advanced manufacturing facilities in the local area.

Set on a 25-acre brownfield site within the Redcar Bulk Terminal (RBT) on the River Tees, the project will benefit from the existing strong road, rail, and port links, which means the centre can participate in UK and European waste-derived fuel markets.

In line with its ambitions to be a greener, more efficient and lower-cost solution to landfill and export, it will also offer zero-emission energy from waste in partnership with the Net Zero Teesside Carbon Capture project, which is located next to the site.

Roy Bedlow, founder and chief executive of Low Carbon, said: “The 49.9 MW subsidy-free Redcar Energy Centre will use proven conventional technology to provide a reliable source of controllable energy for more than 100,000 homes. It will divert more than 350,000 tonnes of waste away from landfill, add flexibility to the fuel and recycling supply chains, and provide hundreds of jobs to an area with a proud industrial heritage.

“Low Carbon is delighted to bring forward our third consented waste project in the UK and to use our experience in developing this large-scale renewable and low-carbon energy projects to help deliver this project in the Tees Valley.”

“It has been a long-term goal of PMAC Energy to develop a large-scale sustainable energy-from-waste recovery centre in the North East and we are proud to have Low Carbon’s support in developing Redcar Energy Centre,” commented Robert Lewis, founder of PMAC Energy.

“We have used our extensive experience handling and processing waste-derived fuels throughout Europe to design a flexible solution for both waste management and energy recovery to support the growing list of future developments in the neighbouring South Tees area that require renewable energy direct.”