Wheelabrator Technologies announced today (20 Feb) it will no longer proceed with its plans for the proposed Wheelabrator Harewood waste-to-energy project in Hampshire.
The waste-to-energy facility would have diverted up to 500,000 tonnes (550,000 tons) of residual household and business waste from landfill or export to continental Europe per year, and recovered renewable baseload energy from non-recyclable waste, sufficient to power over 110,000 UK homes.
Commenting on the decision, Wheelabrator Technologies Vice President for Business Development, Paul Green, said: “The UK waste-to-energy market is extremely buoyant with significant capacity gaps remaining in the residual waste management infrastructure. Wheelabrator is well-placed to address this capacity gap and provide sustainable waste management solutions with a number of live projects across the UK.
“Having undertaken a strategic review of the wide range of opportunities in our current pipeline, we have decided to focus our efforts on further advanced waste-to-energy projects, and as such, will no longer continue to invest in the development of the Wheelabrator Harewood waste-to-energy facility.
Having undertaken a strategic review of the wide range of opportunities in our current pipeline, we have decided to focus our efforts on further advanced waste-to-energy projects
“Wheelabrator would like to thank everyone who took the time to provide feedback as part of our recent community consultations.”
Wheelabrator’s advanced waste-to-energy development projects include Wheelabrator Kemsley North in Sittingbourne, Kent, located adjacent to Wheelabrator’s Kemsley (K3) facility, and Skelton Grange in Yorkshire, less than 15 miles from Multifuel Energy Limited (MEL) Ferrybridge 1 and Ferrybridge 2, which are part of the MEL joint venture with SSE.
“Wheelabrator has an active pipeline of other waste-to-energy projects and expects to be able to announce further progress on these opportunities soon.
Wheelabrator also recently achieved major milestones in North Wales and West Yorkshire, with two new waste-to-energy facilities, Wheelabrator Parc Adfer and Ferrybridge 2 reaching full commercial operations in December 2019.
Once Wheelabrator Kemsley becomes operational in Q2 2020, Wheelabrator will have the combined capacity to treat over 2.2 million tonnes (2.4 million tons) of residual waste, capable of powering around 500,000 UK homes and businesses each and every year.
Wheelabrator Technologies remains committed to developing, delivering and operating waste-to-energy facilities capable of diverting residual waste from landfill, preventing the need for export of waste to Europe, reducing greenhouse gases, recycling metals that would otherwise go to landfill and generating clean, renewable baseload energy.