Artist's impression of Drenl's EfW facility in Corby
A new energy-from-waste (EfW) facility, set to be built in Northamptonshire in October, is reaching financial close.
EfW company Distributed Renewable Energy Networks Limited (Drenl) plans to build the £80 million gasification facility, capable of processing 120,000 tonnes of commercial and industrial (C&I) waste a year, at Gretton Brook Road Industrial Estate, Corby in October. The facility receiving planning permission from Corby Borough Council in May of this year.
The waste, which will be collected from offices, factories, building sites and shops in the Corby and Northamptonshire area (within a thirty mile radius of the site) will be delivered by truck to the facility before being sorted (for offsite recycling) with residual waste being shredded to produce refuse derived fuel (RDF) that will be burnt to produce nine megawatts of electricity – enough to power 18,000 homes.
Although the facility will not be recouping heat from the process to begin with, it will be made ‘CHP ready’ (combined heat and power ready). Drenl says that if proposed plans for a Resource Recovery Park at the adjacent Brookfield Plantation go ahead, the EfW facility could provide heat for the buildings via a pipe network. (The most recent planning application for the recovery park was refused, however.)
It is expected that 200 construction jobs will be made available when building works start in autumn, with a further 60 permanent jobs being created when the facility comes online (scheduled for Winter 2015/Spring 2016). Bouygues Energies and Services UK have been appointed to build and operate the plant.
Speaking of the plans, Jim Brathwaite CBE, Chairman of Drenl Ltd, said: “We hope to provide heat to the Resource Recovery Park planned next door. This site, with our guaranteed power and heat, should encourage the type of manufacturing and food processing companies that need energy to operate that I know the owners are talking to.
“The recovery of our otherwise waste heat resource is what makes this site a welcome addition to the area as far as Drenl is concerned. It makes the plant that will be built anyway, even more environment-friendly by using our recovered heat, instead of us having to exhaust it through the coolers. This will probably be its biggest and most valuable resource recovery.”
Find out more about Drenl's EfW facility in Corby.
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