Energy from Waste

Posted on: May 6, 2010

The UK, as a whole, is coming under increasing pressure to develop techniques to achieve its landfill diversion techniques and renewable energy generation targets. Energy recovery from waste is widely used as a way of adding significant value from materials which would otherwise be sent for landfill. Whilst these sorts of developments are potentially contentious ones, they are vital in reducing reliance on landfill and meeting renewable energy targets.

As a result of legislative drivers and government incentives (i.e. the Renewable Obligation Certificates) more and more companies are looking to break into this relatively young market. The Energy Technologies Institute estimates that the UK has the potential to utilise around 100 million tonnes of waste per annum, which in turn could generate up to 4% of its electricity and heating requirements.

With a ready made supply of fuel material and a demand for the outputs, Environmental Compliance’s involvement in planning applications for waste to energy facilities has increased significantly over the last year. We are currently involved in five major applications ranging from 50,000 to 400,000 tonnes per annum facilities.

Our role varies from preparation of individual chapters of an environmental statement, to total project management of the entire planning application. The planning team within the consultancy division is rapidly expanding and now includes chartered town and country planners. In addition to the planning stage, we are also heavily involved in preparing Environmental Permit applications and our UKAS/MCERTS emissions monitoring team are also assisting with commissioning and ongoing support of such facilities.

For more information on this article, please contact Sarah Burley (s.burley@envirocompli.com)