A £480 million energy-from-waste plant at Northwich in Cheshire has been given the green light after the developers tied down financing for the project.
With the ability to process up to 600,000 tonnes of waste each year and a maximum power output of 60MW, the Lostock Sustainable Energy Plant will be one of the largest such facilities in Europe.
The Danish fund manager Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners owns a 60 per cent stake in the project. The remaining 40 per cent is held by the waste supplier for the plant FCC Environment, which will also be responsible for its operation and maintenance.
Paul Taylor, chief executive of FCC Environment Group, said the facility will help to address a “severe capacity gap” in the UK for the disposal of unrecyclable waste.
“We already successfully operate a number of plants here in the UK generating some 102MW of green energy with a new plant due to come on stream in Edinburgh later this summer,” he added.
“So this development forms an important part of our strategy to continuously invest in the waste related infrastructure that is crucial for this country’s ability to process waste and power homes across the UK both today and in the future.”
Picture: Artist’s impression of Lostock Sustainable Energy Plant
The plant is scheduled to begin operating in the second quarter of 2023 following 15 months of enabling works, a three-year construction phase and six months of commissioning.
Last week, Covanta, the Green Investment Group and Veolia gave the go-ahead to a new energy-from-waste plant at Rookery South Pit in Bedfordshire.