The power plant scheme is financed by a consortium of the Green Investment Bank and Balfour Beatty, which is the first of its kind in the whole of the UK.
With a supply of 67,000 tonnes of wood waste a year, the plant is expected to produce sufficient renewable energy to power more than 17,000 homes.
During its 20-year design life, the £48m plant is calculated to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases by 2.1 million tonnes and save 1.3m tonnes of waste wood that would otherwise end up in the landfill.
The power generation works using the mechanism of gasification of the wood waste. Following this, the wood is burned to produce steam, which then drives a turbine unit thereby generating electricity for export to the national grid. The gasification technology is provided by a Canadian firm, Nexterra Systems.
MWH Treatment is involved in two other energy from waste projects, which are currently in the development phase and are expected to begin in 2014.
The site preparation works are scheduled to begin as soon as possible with a completion date at the beginning of 2016.
Ian Miller, Energy From Waste operations director, MWH Treatment commented: “We are delighted to have secured this exciting opportunity to deliver and run this project – one which really makes a difference in terms of renewable technologies. I am especially pleased that our core engineering and construction expertise in design and build as well as our operational and maintenance capability is being fully utilised, creating real value for all parties involved.”
