Rookery South Resource Recovery Facility Project
About the Project
Covanta Energy is proposing to construct and operate a Resource Recovery Facility (RRF) at Rookery South Pit, a former brick clay extraction pit, near Stewartby in Bedfordshire. The main components of the RRF will comprise of an Energy-from-Waste (EfW) Facility and post treatment Materials Recovery Facility (MRF), which will be capable of using household and business waste, leftover after recycling and composting, as a fuel to generate heat and electricity.
The RRF will convert approximately 585,000 tonnes of residual waste per year into 65MWe of electricity, of which 55MWe would be exported to the national grid. That's enough electricity equivalent to meet the needs of Bedford and the Marston Vale (about 82,500 homes). There are also excellent opportunities to supply surplus heat to nearby developments such as NIRAH and The Wixams. At least 50 percent of the energy generated will be classified as renewable.
As the Project is principally a power station generating over 50MW of electricity per year, the application will be processed by the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC). Covanta has submitted an application - known as a Development Consent Order (DCO) - to the IPC to construct and operate the RRF. Following the 'validation period', the IPC has accepted the submission, enabling the proposals to move forward to the next phase of public involvement - known as the 'examination' phase.
Covanta intends to source the fuel from Bedfordshire and Luton and from nearby local authority areas (depending on future contract awards). At present, approximately 370,000 tonnes of residual household and business waste is generated within the Bedfordshire and Luton area, with the vast majority land filled - the least sustainable option. Covanta treats more waste at its EfW facilities than anyone else worldwide, and sees this technology as the most cost effective, proven and environmentally sound alternative to landfill.
To achieve even greater environmental benefits, Covanta is proposing a dedicated MRF to recover valuable metals and secondary aggregate post-treatment in the EfW facility. Overall, the Rookery South RRF will recover value from approximately 96 percent of the waste it treats, helping Authorities meet recovery, recycling and renewable energy targets.
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