Construction work has now begun on Viridor’s Avonmouth Resource Recovery Centre (RRC), after laying the foundations last summer.
Board members of the Somerset Waste Partnership and the Pennon Group met to mark the latest construction phase
The 33MW plant will burn up to 320,000 tonnes of waste per year, and is expected to take up to 35% of its feedstock from councils within the Somerset Waste Partnership. It will also serve as a merchant facility, with the remaining waste likely to be filled by commercial and industrial (C&I) waste demand.
The £252million project, which is due to be completed in the summer of 2020, forms part of a £1.5bn “investment in next-generation recycling and recovery facilities” by Viridor’s parent company, South West-based Pennon Group.
Local economy
Viridor says it has already spent over £2m within a 20-mile radius of Avonmouth as part of its commitment to “support the local economy during construction”, as well as supporting local companies by signing deals with firms to supply mobile plant and aggregate.
Commenting on the development, Sir John Parker, chairman of the Pennon Group said: “We are using our experienced team, drawn from across our UK energy recovery network, who have proven how to safely build energy recovery facilities on time and on budget to ensure that we are able to offer a vital landfill diversion service to our local authority partners and businesses in the Bristol area from 2020.”
Bristol Council
Planning permission for the facility was granted in 2011 and was upheld by the High Court despite a legal challenge from Bristol city council. Plans to further develop the plant had been put on ice until an announcement that the plant would go ahead in autumn 2016 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Industrial engineering contractor CNIM is providing the technology for the facility and Clugston is the building and civils contractor.
CNIM and Clugston have worked on previous projects with Viridor, including the company’s Ardley EfW plant in Oxfordshire (see letsrecycle.com story).
Mickey Green, managing director of the Somerset Waste Partnership, said the RRC in Avounmouth forms the “cornerstone” of its recycling ambitions.
He added: “The Somerset Waste Partnership manages the waste from more than 250,000 Somerset homes, with one of the highest recycling rates in the country and recycling in the UK 94% of what we collect. We value our partnership with Viridor, which helps us ensure Somerset’s waste is never wasted but given new life as a valuable resource.”
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Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
