Viridor Breaks Ground on 7.25MW Waste to Energy Plant in Peterborough

A formal ground breaking ceremony has taken place at Viridor’s 85,000 tonne per year waste to energy facility in Peterborough, UK. Senior representatives of the city council joined Viridor – a part of the Pennon Group (LSE: PNN) and construction partners Interserve and Babcock &Wilcox Volund at the site in Fengate to see construction get underway at the energy recovery project. Existing buildings at the site were demolished earlier this year and ground preparation work carried out in readiness for the construction phase. Viridor said that the plant, scheduled to be fully operational by the end of 2015, will transform the city’s residual waste into energy and virtually eliminate landfill disposal locally. The company added that the facility is expected to create 25 permanent jobs, as well as hundreds of jobs throughout construction and generate potential new business opportunities for local suppliers. With a planned capacity of 85,000 tonnes, the plant is expected to help the city council achieve a landfill diversion rate of around 94%. Residents in Peterborough currently produce around 90,000 tonnes of waste every year. However, due to a rising population, this figure is anticipated to increase to 140,000 tonnes per year by 2040. According to Viridor, capacity at the new facility will allow the flexibility to deal with the growing population, and enable local businesses to reduce their reliance on landfill. For more on the story watch WMW’s newscast below. Read More Work on Biogas Waste to Energy Facility at MBT Plant in Yorks Set to Start Kirk Environmental, is to begin construction of an anaerobic digestion facility at a new Mechanical Biological Treatment facility in Manvers, South Yorkshire. Additional 15mt Recycling & Waste to Energy Capacity Needed in UK & Ireland With a projected 58 million tpa of C&I waste likely to be generated by 2020 there is likely to be a capacity gap for waste treatment capacity in the UK and Ireland of up to 15 million tonnes Vinod Khosla & Bill Gates Back Waste to Biofuel Firm with $100m KiOR, which has developed technology to convert biomass such as agricultural and wood wastes into a hydrocarbon-based biofuel secured an additional $100 million finance.