Wheelabrator Technologies achieves commercial operations at new U.K. waste-to-energy plants

PORTSMOUTH — Wheelabrator Technologies realized major milestones in the U.K. in 2019 when two new waste-to-energy facilities reached full commercial operations.

After three years of construction, the creation of approximately 1,500 jobs and $110,000 in contributions to local community causes and initiatives, the waste-to-energy facilities—Wheelabrator Parc Adfer, located at Deeside in North Wales, and Ferrybridge Multifuel 2 (FM2) in West Yorkshire — commenced operations in late December and will now play a critical role in the region’s environmental and energy infrastructure.

Combined, Wheelabrator Parc Adfer and FM2 will process up to 964,000 tons per year of residual waste. Together, they will utilize waste as a fuel to generate a total output of 98 megawatts (gross)/89 MW (net), enough electricity to power an estimated 210,000 U.K. homes and businesses.

The facilities will divert residual waste from landfill, prevent the need for export of waste to continental Europe, reduce greenhouse gases, recycle metals that would otherwise go to landfill and generate clean, renewable baseload energy.

Wheelabrator entered the U.K. market in 2009 to target Private Finance Initiatives (PFIs) and shortly after commenced its support for the startup of Riverside Resource Recovery Facility in Belvedere, London, leveraging Wheelabrator’s operational excellence in the U.S. over the last 45 years. Wheelabrator has since successfully developed, financed and managed the construction of four waste-to-energy facilities. The first to be delivered was Ferrybridge Mutlitfuel 1 (FM1), part of the Multifuel Energy Limited (MEL) joint venture with SSE, which commenced commercial operations in July 2015 to process 744,000 tons per year and generate 79 MW (gross)/72 MW (net) after being built by Hitachi Zozen Inova (HZI). It is now recognized as one of the most efficient waste-to-energy facilities in the U.K. FM2, also built by HZI, is expected to achieve comparable levels of performance, being managed by the same management team within the MEL joint venture.

Since commencing full operations in December, Wheelabrator Parc Adfer, built by EPC contractor CNIM, has performed exceptionally well with a capacity of 220,000 tons per year. Wheelabrator Kemsley, also being built by CNIM, is currently progressing hot commissioning and is expected to come online in Q2 2020. The facility will process 605,000 tons and generate 69 MW (gross)/63 MW (net) when the facility is taken over from CNIM.

Once all four assets are operational, they will process 2.3M tons of residual household and commercial waste, and generate 1.1M net MWh of renewable, baseload energy each year.

“This is a significant accomplishment for our business and is transformational for our team in the U.K. as we commence operations at both Wheelabrator Parc Adfer, and FM2, the second facility within our MEL joint venture with SSE,” said Bob Boucher, president and CEO at Wheelabrator. Growth in this market has been our number one strategic priority and I am proud of our team and our customers for continuing to demand and support sustainable waste management in the U.K. Takeover of these two facilities is the result of many years of commitment, hard work and strong partnerships with our customers and the communities we operate within.

“There remains a significant capacity gap in this market, and we continue to explore opportunities to develop new waste-to-energy facilities to ensure local, sustainable waste management solutions, and provide energy security for the U.K. With limited landfill space, high landfill taxes, high costs and increasing barriers to exporting waste to continental Europe and the need to invest in baseload electricity generation, Wheelabrator is well-positioned to unlock future opportunities to provide sustainable waste management to local communities.”

Wheelabrator’s active development pipeline is already well-advanced with a further three U.K. projects, Wheelabrator Kemsley North in Kent, located next to the almost complete Wheelabrator Kemsley facility, Wheelabrator Harewood in Hampshire, and Skelton Grange in Yorkshire, which will be developed with SSE as part of the MEL joint venture.

“We look forward to continuing to develop, deliver and realize the potential of clean energy in the U.K.,” Boucher said.

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. Visit www.wtienergy.com.