The Bilsthorpe Energy Centre
Temporary Suspension of Licensing for Incineration Plants
Rumbling on since 2013 and long before I arrived in the
Village the Bilsthorpe incinerator project is now subject to licensing
suspension by the Environmental Protection Agency following a letter from The
Rt. Hon. Sir Mark Spencer, MP, Minister of State for Food, Farming and
Fisheries.
Background
The £70-million facility at the former Bilsthorpe Colliery,
which if built will also include a materials recovery facility and energy
generation infrastructure, was proposed by Waste2Tricity and Peel
Environmental.
The project was given the go ahead by Nottingham County
Council in November 2014, but Eric Pickles, then Secretary of State for the Department
for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), stepped in to delay the project stating
it was ‘not yet in a position to decide,’ in December 2014.
The reason given for delaying the decision was the recent
withdrawal of Air Products from its energy-from-waste (EfW) business. The
American gas company abandoned a facility due to use similar technology to the
Waste2Tricity plant, which was in construction in the Tees Valley due to
‘design and operational challenges.’
While plasma gasification technology is proven for plants
producing up to 10MW of electricity the Teesside facility was the first attempt
to build at an ‘industrial scale’, which would have involved handling thousands
of tonnes of waste every day.
A letter sent from DCLG to parties to the inquiry stated:
‘In view of this announcement by Air Products, and the fact that it was not
disputed at the inquiry that the Bilsthorpe Energy Centre would use the same
technology, the Secretary of State considers it appropriate to give the parties
to the Bilsthorpe case an opportunity to comment on any implications which the
reasons leading to this announcement might have for the Bilsthorpe scheme as
currently proposed.’
Responding to the announcement, Shlomo Dowen, National
Coordinator at the United Kingdom Without Incineration Network (UKWIN), who
gave evidence at the public inquiry for the Bilsthorpe application, said: “The
Bilsthorpe facility is proposed to use an even more experimental variation of
the plasma gasification technology that Air Products failed to get to work in
Tees Valley. How much more money do Waste2Tricity and Peel intend to squander
on this unwanted and unnecessary proposal before they follow Air Product’s lead
and give up on this failed technology?”
2016 Planning Permission
In June 2016 the Secretary of State Communities and Local
Government, Greg Clark, approved the plans. in reaching his verdict, Mr Clark
said that the “design and operational challenges” of the Air Products plants
have not been made public, whilst the technology proposed to be used at
Bilsthorpe is “demonstrably proven and in operation elsewhere”.
Mr Clark went on to conclude that he does not have
“sufficient information” on which to base a Regulation 22 request for
additional environmental information on the issues raised.
According to Peel, the Westinghouse Plasma Corp – the
developer behind the plasma gasification technology for the plant – has shown
the technology to be operational in Japan since 2002.
The Bilsthorpe plant plan had also come under fire for its
‘visual impact’ on the area, as well as concerns over air quality, noise, odour,
and the effect on local wildlife.
The planning report reads: “The Secretary of State concludes
that scheme would constitute sustainable development under the terms of the
Framework and that it is in accordance with the development plan for the area
when read as a whole. He is also satisfied that, in terms of the planning
balance, the adverse impacts of the development proposed would be significantly
and demonstrably outweighed by the benefits.”
Ebb and Flow
Plans for the Bilsthorpe Energy Centre have been withdrawn
and re-submitted several times since then until the planning permission lapsed
in June 2021and a Call for Sites was re-issued in March 2022. (NCC Minutes
– page 260)
The Call for Sites is for a facility to process:
- 250,000 tonnes- incineration/ pyrolysis/ gasification
- 150,000 tonnes- Material Recovery Facility
- 100,000 tonnes- specialist treatment
In April 2023 Vitali Energi indicated that they were about to
submit plans to develop the Bilsthorpe Energy Centre. So far, those plans have
not been presented.
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