Member Article

£16m waste recycle plant gets go-ahead

A green company that recycles waste has been given planning permission to build a second centre that will cost £16m and create 100 new jobs.

Earthly Energy, based on the Wilton site near Redcar, has gained approval for a second 5.1MW Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plant, which is based on the fermentation of waste and will power up to 5,500 homes.

It comes just months after Earthly Energy’s first plant was built on Teesside, taking the jobs tally up to 200 in a £32m total boost for the region.

Earthly Energy use biomass from grass cuttings and garden rubbish to pig slurry and discarded food.

There are also plans for four more similar sized plants around the country in a total £100m finance package.

Director Yotta Karanicolas said: “Securing our second site is great news for the company and the area.

“We have been assisted by so many business professionals within Teesside and this investment is testimonial to their support.”

The second plant will bring a total of 11.2MW of energy which will go direct into the National Grid, powering 11,000 homes in total.

Earthly Energy’s aim is to make the Tees Valley a centre for excellence in renewable energy.

The firm plans to include a training facility along with an auditorium at the first plant in Middlesbrough, which will enable local youngsters in all levels of education to come along and learn about renewable energy, its effects on the local area and the AD process in general.

In August 2012, it achieved a national first when its Middlesbrough AD plant was given Regional Growth Funding (RGF) of £1m.

This was followed in October by an announcement that Greensphere Capital was to invest up to £100m to create an AD platform in the UK of six 5.1 MW plants, in partnership with Earthly Energy.

A month later, Earthly Energy became the first in the UK to receive £8m investment from the Green Investment Bank.

The support received will help the company achieve its ambition of becoming the UK’s “largest commercial facilitator” of Anaerobic Digestion (AD).

AD, which turns biomass into clean energy, is widely used across Europe and has been slow to take off in this country.

But according to reports this week, the AD sector is growing at the rate of 40 per cent year.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Martin Walker .