Scottish Waste to Energy Facility Yet to Produce any Energy

Boilers at the Dargavel Waste to Energy Plant 14 October 2010 A £20 million renewable energy plant at Dargavel Stores in Dumfries, Scotland is failing to produce any power more than a year after it was opened according to reports in the Dumfries and Galloway Standard. The Scotgen waste to energy plant is meant to burn waste and turn it into electricity to be pumped back into the national grid. But a string of problems since it was opened at Dargavel Stores, off Lockerbie Road in Dumfries, last August have hampered those plans. That's angered environmentalists who have branded the state-of-the-art facility as "simply just an incinerator". Convener of the Dumfries and Galloway branch of the Green Party, Alis Ballance, said: "This facility is supposed to be diverting waste from landfill but instead of polluting the land, it is now just polluting the air. "Instead of turning the stuff into energy they are just burning it so it is simply just an incinerator." Balance added. The Scotgen plant, which was heralded at its launch as a "green-friendly way of making energy", burns the waste to create steam which turns a huge turbine to feed power into the national grid. The lack of electricity generation is flagged up in a Site Status Report carried out by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency last month. It states that a "long-term fix to the boiler issues... needs to be resolved before the boiler can be connected to the system." It also states the facility had to stop operating for three months up to March this year due to boiler problems. And SEPA also reports there have been 172 short-term breaches of its emissions limits. Dumfries and Galloway Council's Eco Deco recycling plant sits next door and has a 10-year contract with the Scotgen facility to send any waste they can't recycle to be turned into energy. Mrs Ballance added: "I think the council has to reconsider this contract as the council isn't sending waste there to be turned into energy, it is just being burnt. "There are a lot of concerns about incinerators like these and people need to be reassured by the council and Scotgen that the concerns with the Dumfries plant are being dealt with." Asked about the issues yesterday, the facility's director Andy Carey said: "We are still in the commissioning period and are talking daily with SEPA." Asked if any power had been generated, Carey said: "Not yet but there will be." "We are still tweaking things. It is just a new plant and is the only one of its kind in the UK." The council was asked to comment on the concerns raised about their contract with the facility and said in a statement: "Dumfries and Galloway Council is required by the Environmental Protection Act (1990) to ensure that all waste goes to appropriately licensed and permitted waste facilities." "It is the responsibility of SEPA to regulate these facilities." "A small proportion of solid recovered fuel from the EcoDeco waste treatment facility has been sent to Scotgen as part of the commissioning process."