(L-R): Richard Hoare, Raymond Brown Aggregates Project Manager; Rod Lerwell, Ardley EfW General Manager; Paul Rowland, Viridor Regional Contracts Manager; and Steve Cole, Raymond Brown Aggregates Environmental and Development Director.
A £200 million energy-from-waste (EfW) incineration facility owned by waste management company Viridor has begun generating power after successfully synchronising with the National Grid.
The generation of power at the Ardley Energy Recovery Facility marks the final stages of the commissioning process before the site becomes fully operational ‘later this year’.
Facility details
Once up and running, the site will run 24 hours a day and will process 300,000 tonnes of residual municipal, commercial and industrial waste per annum.
This waste, collected from households and businesses in Oxfordshire, will be shredded and incinerated to produce steam, which will power a turbine to generate enough electricity to power over 38,000 homes a year.
The EfW facility will also be ‘combined heat and power ready’, meaning it will have the potential to provide heat and energy to neighbouring facilities in future.
As well as the EfW facility, the Ardley site also features an incinerator bottom ash (IBA) processing facility, which will allow for the pre-treatment storage, treatment, long-term storage and sealed loading of the anticipated 75,000 tonnes of IBA produced by the EfW facility every year. This recycled IBA will then be exported for use as secondary aggregate in the construction industry.
It is hoped that the IBA facility will help the Ardley facility divert up to 95 per cent of residual waste from landfill.
The EfW facility has been build by contractor CNIM Clugston Oxfordshire Ltd, with IBA processing company Raymond Brown building and operating the IBA facility.
‘A more sustainable future for waste in Oxfordshire’
Speaking of the power generation at Ardley, General Manager Rod Lerwell, said: “I’m so proud to see the facility starting to come to life in these final stages. We’re close to completion and I look forward to taking over from all the teams who have worked in partnership to bring us to this point.
“We’ll continue with the hard work to ensure that our best-in-class facility provides a great service to the people of Oxfordshire.”
County Councillor David Nimmo Smith, cabinet member for Environment at Oxfordshire County Council, added: “This is excellent news and represents another step towards a more sustainable future for waste in Oxfordshire.
“Oxfordshire County Council, its partners at the district councils and with the valuable support of residents, has done a massive amount of work to reduce household waste and maximise recycling and composting. It is therefore very pleasing to know that what little does ‘go to waste’ will actually provide power and not go into unsustainable landfill.”
Find out more about the Ardley Energy Recovery Facility.
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