An Anaerobic Digestion and horticultural glasshouse located on a former coal mining site South York.
The council of York has approved the planning of Peel Environmental’s energy-from-waste and a horticultural glasshouse scheme to be based on a 24 hectares former mining site based between the villages of Escrick and Wheldrake. The glasshouse, using some of the heat produced, will be operated by Howden-based specialist Plant Raisers to propagate mainly tomato plants.
The £23.5 million investment (£17.5m for the Anaerobic Digestor and £6m for the glasshouse) will support the expansion of a successful Yorkshire business and provide up to 256 jobs during construction, 56 full-time positions and 50 seasonal positions during operations, representing an estimated £2.2 million Gross Value Added (GVA) per year.
The location is favourable to the facility due to its topography, the presence of a National Grid Substation, other infrastructure such as office blocks, storage buildings, workshop, access to A19 and good transport links and existing screening.
Anaerobic Digestion (AD) processes “organic” matter in the absence of air which get converted into useful products serving a local market of bio-fertilisers, an eco-friendly alternative to traditional fossil fuel derived fertiliser. Using waste as a resource instead of sending it to landfill sites reduces greatly the impact of waste on the environment and reduce carbon emissions as around 20,000 tonnes of CO2 will be saved every year. Any biomass or organic waste can be processed and converted into renewable energy such as source separated food waste, commercial and industrial waste (slurry) and agricultural waste (energy crops, crop residues etc).
The scheme will generate enough electricity to supply the horticultural glasshouse and to meet the needs of about 3,500 homes. The low carbon energy produced will include around 1.5MW of heat and up to 2.75MW of electricity thereby helping to diversify the UK’s energy mix and decarbonising energy production.
Construction: 2013 onwards
