Waste-to-energy company Covanta has partnered with water and waste firm Veolia to develop a waste-to-energy facility in the UK.
The Rookery South Energy Recovery Facility near Stewartby, Bedfordshire, UK will have the capacity to annually process up to 480,000 metric tons of municipal, commercial and industrial residual waste to generate more than 50 MW of energy.
The waste-to-energy facility received planning approval in 2013 under the UK's Development Consent Order procedures for the delivery of nationally important infrastructure. The two companies plan to jointly own and obtain project financing for the project, with Veolia providing the waste and Covanta operating the facility.
In addition to providing renewable power to the grid, the facility will be designed to export steam to support a local district heating system, says Covanta’s Matthew Mulcahy, senior vice president and head of corporate development.
The companies expect to begin construction by late 2017 with the facility becoming operational in 2020.
The global waste-to-energy market is expected to reach $37.64 billion by 2020 growing at a compound annual growth rate of 5.9 percent, up from $25.3 billion in 2013, according to a Grand View Research report.
While waste-to-energy has been slow to take off in the US, it’s big business in Europe, driven largely by EU waste legislation.
It’s also picking up steam in Asia. The Chinese government plans to build 300 waste-to-energy plants over the next three years, including the world’s largest such plant in Shenzhen, which, when it opens in 2020, will burn 5,000 metric tons of trash every day.
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