A second waste-to-energy plant will be built in the UK’s Tees Valley, attracting £430 million (€482 million) of private investment and creating hundreds of jobs.
The announcement from PD Ports and Wentworth Clean Power (WCP) comes two weeks after PD Ports announced a £230 million (€258 million) deal to bring a waste-to-energy plant to the region.
The second project, also based in Teesport Commerce Park, will have an annual capacity of 250,000 tonnes of specialist feedstocks and an electrical output of up to 18 MWe – enough to power 16,000 homes in the region.
The project will also generate usable heat and offer the potential for direct heat supply to local and planned developments in the area, together with direct electrical supply.
Subject to planning approval, this project will cover 30 acres and generate 250-300 full-time jobs during construction and up to 50 further full-time jobs when operational, including highly-skilled engineering posts.
“PD Ports is delighted to have secured both projects for the region and explained how the waste-to-energy plants align with the port operators’ decarbonisation agenda,” said Frans Calje, CEO of PD Ports.
“This is fantastic news for the whole of the Tees Valley. We have secured over £600 million (€673 million) of private investment to bring these state-of-the-art facilities to our region that will, in turn, create jobs, boost prosperity and place us at the forefront of the net-zero agenda.
“We are constantly working to support sustainable practices and reduce our impact on the environment. We are committed to supporting the government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda for the north, while also seeking to deliver more efficient and environmentally sustainable solutions to aid the target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 – these waste-to-energy projects fully support that commitment.”
Philip Spanos, CEO of WCP, added: “We are delighted to be delivering not one but two highly advanced, sustainable energy and waste management projects to the Tees Valley and look forward to playing our role, alongside PD Ports and local stakeholders, in contributing to the realisation of the immense potential of this region.
“WCP is working with world-class partners to bring these projects to fruition and will seek to engage fully and collaboratively with local stakeholders in all respects.”
The scale of investments brought to the Tees Valley as a result of these two waste-to-energy projects is on par with the £635 million (€712 million) invested in the MGT Power Station, which is nearing completion at nearby Teesport.
