to construct a North East Energy Recovery Centre at Haverton Hill in the Tees Valley. SITA UK, one of the country's largest recycling and waste management specialists, is consulting on plans to develop a new state of the art facility on land adjacent to its existing Tees Valley energy-from-waste facility at Haverton Hill, Billingham.
The company's proposed energy-from-waste facility – which would be called the North East Energy Recovery Centre or NEERC – would manage up to 256,000 tonnes of household and commercial waste each year. It will produce sufficient electricity each year to supply the homes in a town the size of Hartlepool.
Included in the development will be a railhead, which means that waste can be transported to the site by rail and the number of road journeys can be minimised.
Graham Ingleson, General Manager at the Tees Valley EfW facility said: "This will be an important development for the north east region and will help confirm the Tees Valley as a centre for energy recovery.
"This project represents a major investment by SITA UK in the Tees Valley and the proposal comes at a time when energy-from-waste is increasingly being acknowledged as a preferred method for dealing with waste that cannot be recycled or composted. It will provide hundreds of jobs during construction and around forty new full-time skilled jobs will be created to operate the Centre.
"The NEERC is an example of a new generation of facility that will produce renewable energy and reduce the need for landfill in the region. It will produce sufficient electricity each year to power a town the size of Hartlepool and also provide heat that can be piped to local industries, helping to reduce their energy needs and reduce the use of fossil fuels.
"We will be holding an exhibition to introduce our plans to key partners, stakeholders and residents living in near the proposed plant. We are keen to ensure that our neighbours understand exactly what we would like to build and to explain how the new state of the art NEERC will work."
The plans will be on display and representatives of the company will be available to answer questions at a public exhibition to be held at The Clarences Community Resource Centre, Port Clarence Road, between 2 - 7pm on Wednesday 23 April 2008.
Following this consultation it is likely that SITA UK will submit a formal planning application to Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council in the early summer.
1. The NEERC will have a number of environmentally sustainable features:
· Emissions will comply with the stringent requirements of the Waste Incineration Directive.
· 21 MW of electricity will be generated and exported to the National Grid. The electricity generated from the biogenic fraction of the waste is considered as a renewable form of energy.
· Heat can be exported to nearby industries increase efficiency and sustainability. Built into the new development will be the option to export heat to a local user should one be identified.
· Ash will be recycled at the adjacent plant and used as an aggregate for road building.
· Metals will be extracted from the ash and recycled.
2. The existing Tees Valley EfW facility, which has been successfully operating since 1998, processes 250,000 tonnes of household waste per year. It currently generates enough electricity each year to power the homes in a town the size of Hartlepool.
3. Work which is currently underway to extend the existing EfW facility received planning permission in 2000 and will provide an additional capacity of 136,000 tonnes per year. The extension is not connected with the proposed North East Energy Recovery Centre.
4. There's more information about the NEERC proposal on SITA UK's website at www.sita.co.uk/you/working-with-the-community