Low Carbon announces partnership to develop a new waste-to-energy facility in the West Midlands – powering 70,000 homes
31 March 2020 – Low Carbon has today announced a new partnership with Verus Energy Limited and Wheelabrator Technologies to develop, construct and operate the Kelvin Energy Recovery Facility in West Bromwich.
The waste-to-energy facility will divert 395,000 tonnes of household and business waste from landfill or export and instead use it to generate up to 49.9MW (gross) of renewable baseload energy – equivalent to the needs of around 70,000 U.K. homes.
Strategically located and easily serviceable by road, this facility is well placed to handle non-recyclable waste from across the West Midlands. With a catchment area that includes greater Birmingham, it will help deal with a projected capacity shortfall of 2.0m tonnes a year, helping Local Authorities to focus their efforts on recycling waste and helping stopping waste going to landfill.
Commenting on the new partnership, Low Carbon’s Investment Director, Dominic Noel-Johnson, said: “This announcement marks another significant milestone in the story of this project and we’re delighted to now be working together towards financial close. This facility will harness non-recyclable waste as a sustainable energy resource, creating local jobs and local energy supply for the West Midlands region. This is one of the many exciting projects Low Carbon have in their advanced pipeline for 2020 and we look forward to expanding our renewable energy at scale in the UK and internationally.”
Commenting on the new partnership, Wheelabrator Technologies U.K. Managing Director, Julia Watsford said: “We’re excited to be joining this project and look forward to working with our partners and building upon Wheelabrator’s proven track record to address the UK’s ongoing capacity shortfall in residual waste management infrastructure.”
“Providing an essential service such as the safe and reliable treatment of non-recyclable waste is even more critical during a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic and we are committed to continuing operations throughout the pandemic to support the health and well-being of our communities, employees and partners. We are and will continue to take all necessary steps to protect our employees, our customers and the communities in which we operate.”
Tim Jervis, Verus Energy, said: “Wheelabrator Technologies brings a significant amount of experience to this project and has a well-established reputation for successfully developing and operating facilities of this type. The facility will provide the area with a state-of-the-art waste management facility with a significantly lower environmental impact than either landfilling or transporting waste to distant alternative disposal sites. We’re looking forward to seeing it progress.”
ENDS
About Low Carbon
Low Carbon is a leading renewable energy investment and asset management company committed to the development and operation of renewable energy at scale. Low Carbon invests into both renewable energy developers and projects across a range of renewable energy technologies including solar PV, wind, energy storage, waste-to-energy and energy efficiency. Low Carbon has a proven track record in the development, construction, financing and management of renewable energy assets and remains involved in the projects for the long term with a dedicated asset management team that manages assets on balance sheet and for third parties. The team is actively engaged in the UK and European waste-to-energy market and with a renewable energy pipeline of more than 3GW, they are well positioned to capitalise on opportunities as the need for renewable energy and energy security increases.
About Verus Energy Ltd
Verus Energy’s mission is to help the UK solve its waste and energy challenges by developing clean and efficient Waste to Energy facilities using commercially proven technology. The company is developing four projects in various parts of the UK amounting to more than 1,000,000 tonnes of waste disposal capacity and more than 100 MWs of dispatchable electricity generation capacity.
About Wheelabrator
Wheelabrator Technologies is the second largest U.S. waste-to-energy business, and is an industry leader in the conversion of everyday residential and business waste into clean energy. Wheelabrator currently has a platform of 25 strategically located assets across the U.S. and U.K. —19 waste-to-energy facilities (one under construction), two waste fuel facilities as well as four ash monofills. We also recover metals for recycling at two advanced metals recovery systems and one central upgrade facility. Wheelabrator currently has an annual waste processing capacity of over 9.1 million tons (8.2 million tonnes), and a total combined electric generating capacity of 663MW (gross)—creating enough energy to power 755,000 U.S. homes. Wheelabrator also recovers metals for recycling into commercial products. The company’s vision to develop, deliver and realize the potential of clean energy speaks to Wheelabrator’s ongoing commitment to the development of clean energy solutions for its customers and local communities. Wheelabrator U.K. is the fourth largest UK energy-from-waste business and currently has an annual waste processing capacity of over 2.2 million tonnes (2.4 million tons), and a total combined electric generating capacity of 245 megawatts—enough energy to power more than 500,000 UK homes. Wheelabrator is owned by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, a business within the Macquarie Asset Management division of Macquarie Group and a global alternative asset manager focused on real estate, infrastructure, and agriculture and energy assets. For more on Wheelabrator, please visit www.wtienergy.com. In the U.K., visit www.wtienergy.co.uk.