Peterborough gets go ahead for a landfill-free future

The £250 million plant at Storey's Bar Gate in Peterborough is being developed by Peterborough Renewable Energy Ltd (PREL). As well as an energy from waste and biomass-fuelled power station, the site will also house processes that bring together mechanical recycling, food waste digestion, gasification, and plasma melting, providing a zero-landfill solution.

The Peterborough Energy Park, which has taken eight years to get to this stage, could save 600,000 tonnes of CO2 per year and produce enough renewable energy to power 60,000 homes, said PREL.

PREL hopes the park will be the first in a nationwide network, which will "fundamentally change the way that we deal with mixed waste in the UK" by eliminating the need for future landfill, creating renewable energy and producing higher value goods.

Managing director of PREL Chris Williams, said: "As a nation we have set ourselves very ambitious renewables targets and only by embracing renewable technologies such as PREL’s will we be able to achieve these. Waste can be a valuable resource and using it in a sustainable way will play an essential role in making our future more green."

Power stations with a capacity greater than 50 MW have to get consent from central Government and Energy and Climate Change Minister David Kidney said about the approval: "This plant will provide reliable, low carbon energy for years to come. The UK needs to generate 15 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, and energy from biomass could contribute as much as a third of that. Meeting our target means we have to follow the East of England’s example and build more plants like this."

The Peterborough Energy Park will create 300 construction jobs and 109 green collared operational jobs.

The East of England has its own renewable target of 17 per cent by 2020, not including offshore wind, and Department of Energy and Climate Change said this plant could deliver 10 per cent of that target for 2010 to 2011 and, over the 20 year life of the station, save almost 12 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.