Proposed Heysham waste powered energy facility would run 60,000 homes

The Heysham Gateway Energy Recovery Facility would be based in Imperial Road near Heysham Golf Club and would burn waste from across Lancashire to power a steam-driven turbine, and produce electricity.

Applicants Veolia ES (UK) Ltd says the development will help meet the residual waste management needs of Lancashire through the development of a purpose built facility with a planned opening date for the facility is early 2023.

The facility would have an electricity generating capacity of around 34 Megawatts (MW), with 30 MW of electricity exported to the local electricity grid and the remainder being used in the operation of the facility.

This would be sufficient to meet the equivalent electricity needs of more than 60,000 homes.

The development would include offices, a workshop and visitor and education facilities, air cooled condensers, internal access roads, car, cycle and coach parking, electricity sub-stations, weighbridges, water and diesel tanks, landscaping and other infrastructure.

The planning application states that it would also be capable of providing heat to nearby heat users, with its location within the Heysham Gateway regeneration area “providing a superb opportunity to deliver sustainable heat and power to new and existing businesses in the area.”

The facility would generate electricity by way of a steam turbine which would be driven through the combustion of up to 330,000 tonnes per year of

non-hazardous residual waste, which is not otherwise sent for reuse, recycling or composting.

WHO IS Veolia ES (UK) Ltd?

Veolia is the leading UK waste, water and energy management organisation with pro-forma revenues above £1.8bn in 2017.

The company employs over 14,000 people across a spectrum of services in waste, water and energy.

Its core business in the UK is in the provision of integrated waste management and environmental services to local communities and industry, designed to increase recycling, composting and recovery rates and to significantly reduce reliance on landfill.

It provides a range of services including refuse collection, recycling, composting, waste treatment and street cleansing to over 8 million customers on behalf of 90 local authorities in the UK, and operates a network of recycling, composting, transfer and other treatment and disposal facilities to support the services it provides to both its public and private sector clients.

This includes ten operational Energy Recovery Facilities (ERFs) which recover energy from residual waste streams.