The North London Waste Authority (NLWA) has launched a public consultation on its plans to develop a £500-million combined heat and power (CHP) incinerator at the Edmonton EcoPark in the London Borough of Enfield.

The waste authority, which comprises seven north London boroughs (Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Waltham Forest), announced in 2013 that it could save £900 million over 27 years by pursuing an energy recovery outlet in the Upper Lee Valley, instead of procuring new waste disposal and refuse derived fuel contracts.

As such, it launched its first consultation on proposals to replace the existing incinerator – owned and managed by LondonWaste Ltd, NLWA’s wholly-owned company – with a new CHP facility in November 2014. Using feedback from the consultation process, the NLWA has now released further details of the project application, which are open for consultation before they will be submitted to government for approval.

It is hoped that the facility will save the NLWA money by avoiding landfill costs, help produce a local source of energy, and support the NLWA’s 50 per cent recycling target for 2020.

Edmonton EcoPark CHP details

Expected to come online in 2025 (when the existing power plant reaches the end of its 54-year life), the CHP will incinerate 700,000 tonnes of residual waste a year (at a peak) to produce 50 megawatts of electricity, enough to power around 127,000 homes. It will also have the potential to heat local homes and businesses, by distributing heat produced through schemes like Enfield Council’s planned Lee Valley Heat Network.

The site will also host:

• a new materials recovery facility (MRF), with the intention of separating out recyclable materials from the incoming waste for onward processing;
• a new reuse and recycling centre, where the public and businesses can bring their recycling and bulky items for disposal from 2021 onwards; and
• a three-storey visitors’ centre (pictured, right), where people can find out more about recycling, waste, heat and power.

Composting activities, which currently take place onsite, will be moved offsite.

Due to the size of the facility, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change will rule on the planning application rather than Enfield Council, as it is classed as a ‘nationally significant infrastructure project’. This will be done via a development consent order, which can take up to two years to process.

The NLWA has said that there will be ‘many’ jobs created through the construction process and management of the park, with several more arising from the demolition of the existing incinerator, scheduled for 2026/27.

‘Good news for jobs, investment and sorting out north London’s waste problem’

Launching the consultation yesterday (18 May), Councillor Clyde Loakes, Chair of the NLWA, said: “We want to prevent waste, we want you to recycle it, and anything you can’t, we’re going to turn into fuel and use it to heat and power homes.

“We’re already doing it and this way we can continue to do it, which is good news for jobs, investment and sorting out north London’s waste problem.

“I urge everyone in north London to look at our proposals, view the videos on our website and take part in the consultation. We are going to set the benchmark with this project. It will be one of the best performing in Europe when it comes to air quality. Most important of all, in my opinion, we’re going to be able to heat people’s homes for many years to come.”

Public exhibitions

The public consultation is open until 30 June 2015.

A series of public exhibitions will be held in the local area in June to provide local residents will an opportunity to learn more about the project and discuss the proposals with members of the project team.

The exhibitions will take place at:

• Lee Valley Athletics Centre, N9 0AR

3 June 2015, 12:00 – 18:00

12 June 2015, 17:00 – 21:00

• Oasis Academy Hadley, EN3 4PX

5 June, 17:00 – 21:00

13 June, 10:00 – 16:00

• The Artzone, Edmonton Green Shopping Centre, N9 0TZ

6 June 2015, 12:00 – 18:00

9 June 2015, 16:00 – 21:00

• Parkside Primary School, E4 6XQ

10 June 2015, 16:00 – 20:00

• Neighbourhood Resource Centre, N17 0HJ

11 June 2015, 16:00 – 20:00

Warning over increasing reliance on incineration

Although local authorities are increasingly looking to recover energy from residual waste, there have been concerns raised by some environmental bodies and consultancies that incinerating waste could limit recycling rates.

According to Eunomia Research & Consulting, the UK’s recycling rate in 2030 could be limited to 66 per cent if infrastructure construction and waste exports both proceed as expected.

The warning came in Eunomia’s seventh biannual Residual Waste Infrastructure Review, which outlines that planned residual waste treatment facilities would be collectively capable of processing 17.7 million tonnes per annum (tpa) of residual waste, in addition to plants already operating in the UK. If all these planned plants are fully utilised, there would be more incineration capacity than residual waste arisings (‘overcapacity’), according to the report, which would make it unlikely that the country could hit the 70 per cent recycling target proposed by the previous European Commission (which has been withdrawn with a ‘more ambitious’ Circular Economy Packaged promised by the current administration).

Eunomia argues that this would be due to the fact that authorities would be bound to send high levels of material to these recovery plants (as long-term energy-from-waste contract often specify minimum feedstock), which would be further exacerbated if they are successful in reducing waste arisings.

Find out more about the Edmonton EcoPark proposals or concerns over incineration overcapacity.