Veolia has been granted an environmental permit for its energy from waste plant at Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, as it awaits a final decision on planning approval for the facility.
The permit decision for the 350,000 tonnes per annum facility is the latest development in a long-running effort by the company to develop an energy from waste plant in the county, with Veolia’s planning application for the facility called in by the Secretary of State last year (see letsrecycle.com story).
An artist’s impression of the proposed energy from waste facility at Rye House
Permit
The environmental permit allows the incineration of non-hazardous waste in the plant with capacity of 3 tonnes per hour or more. The facility will receive municipal solid waste and mixed commercial and industrial waste, utilising a two-line process and moving grate furnace technology. The planned installation will generate electricity at a rate of 33.5MWe with 30.2MWe supplied to the grid.
The site could also house a clinical waste and healthcare waste transfer station which is controlled by a Standard Rules Permit that is incorporated into the permit. This activity is restricted to a throughput of less than 75,000 tonnes of waste per year.
It is noted that emissions of odour, and noise and vibration “shall not be at levels likely to cause pollution outside the site”.
Contract
Veolia has been pushing forward plans to develop an EfW plant in Hertfordshire for a number of years.
Plans for a plant were originally put forward by the resources and waste firm for a site at New Barnfield, to fulfil an £800 million waste contract with the county council. However, planning permission was overturned in summer 2015, following a drawn-out political battle over the development of the facility.
Veolia has recieved an environmental permit for the 350,000 tonnes per annum facilities
The Barnfield plant itself was granted planning permission by Hertfordshire in 2012. DCLG then overturned the council’s decision in July 2014 after the application was called in by then Secretary of State Eric Pickles.
In 2016, the company signed a revised 30-year contract with the county council worth £1 billion to treat the 350,000 tonnes of household residual waste generated in the county each year (see letsrecycle.com story).
Call in
But, in February last year, the planning application for the Hoddesdon site was called in by Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities & Local Government, following Hertfordshire county council’s approval of the plans before Christmas 2017 (see letsrecycle.com story).
A subsequent public enquiry took place across the summer of 2018 with the planning inspector’s report to the Secretary of State expected shortly. Should the facility be granted planning permission it is anticipated to be available from late 2022/early 2023.
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Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
