Government approves 60MW renewable plant at Tilbury Docks
Elaine Brass
28th August 2009
The Government has announced its approval of a 60 megawatt (MW) biomass
and Solid Recovery Fuel plant to be built on a disused site at Tilbury
Docks in Essex.
Tilbury Green Power Ltd, a 100 per cent
subsidiary of Dutch consortium and renewable energy company Express
Energy Holdings, plans to build a plant with the capacity to power
100,000 homes annually – the equivalent of 175,000 tonnes of coal burnt
at a traditional, coal powered station. It will invest £250 million in
the plant and said it would create 120 jobs.
The Department
for Energy and Climate Change said it was giving the greenlight to the
project because it tackled both waste and made use of renewable sources
of fuel at the same time. Commenting on the decision, Secretary of
State for Energy and Climate Change, Lord Hunt, Energy and Climate
Change minister, said: “ This power station will achieve both those
objectives by turning waste into energy and using biomass, which will
also contribute to delivering the UK’s renewable energy targets.”
All power stations with a capacity greater than 50MW require Government consent.
Express Energy said it had chosen the Tilbury Docks site because of
the dock location, with good infrastructure and buildings that can be
re-used. The investment will also help regenerate an industrial site.
“An
innovative energy company wants to build a state of the art facility at
Port of Tilbury Docks, to generate electricity from renewable sources
without using traditional fossil fuels," the company stated.
Express
Energy is also developing five other 20MW plants, and expects that, by
2015, its projected portfolio will develop to a capacity of 450MW.