Across the UK, waste-to-energy facilities are being approved as an effective alternative to polluting landfills. Three major projects have attracted the interest of investors, who are seeking for technologies that will replace the harmful landfill sites.
The first project is the construction of a large incinerator in the area of south London. The company Viridor just received the approval to construct an energy recovery facility, which will provide a cost-effective and at the same time environmentally friendly alternative.
The company Peel Environmental, on the other hand, was given permission to construct an anaerobic digestion and horticultural glasshouse facility in the city of York. The anaerobic digestion plant will be constructed on a former mining site and it is expected to provide renewable energy to more than 3,500 homes. On the other hand, the horticultural glasshouse will be built especially to propagate tomato plants.
By constructing these two facilities, the city of York is expected to save around 20,000 tonnes of carbon per year.
The third project is run by the company Emeral Biogas. They are constructing a commercial food waste facility at Newton Aycliffe Industrial Estate. It is expected to generate around 1.56 MW of electricity from 50,00 tonnes of food waste per year.
In addition, the company is also looking into upgrading the biogas plant by installing the so-called biogas injection technology.
