Viridor Announces Second Phase of Runcorn EfW Plant

Posted 11 Oct 2010

EPC Contract signed

Leading UK recycling, renewable power and waste management company Viridor Waste Management Limited (‘Viridor’), has signed the Engineering Procurement and Construction (‘EPC’) Contract for Phase II of the Energy from Waste (‘EfW’) plant at Runcorn in Cheshire with Keppel Seghers Belgium NV and Keppel Seghers UK Ltd (‘Keppel Seghers’).

A key part of Viridor’s stated strategy is the construction and operation of EfW plants to handle residual waste which is being diverted from landfill in line with European Landfill Directives, and to maximise the associated renewable energy generation.  As announced in April 2009, Viridor has secured the development rights to Phase II of the planned Runcorn facility.  Phase I is being built primarily for the Greater Manchester Waste PFI contract.  Phase II will be available for the market generally, as steeply rising landfill tax drives residual waste disposal away from landfill towards EfW.

The Phase II project requires capital investment of approximately £160 million for a 375,000 tonnes per annum capacity plant. This is in addition to the £34 million of advanced and shared works required for both Phase I and Phase II, announced in April 2009.   

Colin Drummond, Chief Executive of Viridor, said “The combined Runcorn plant will be one of the largest and most efficient in Europe with a total capacity of 750kt of waste p.a., 70MW of electricity and 51MW of heat.  Construction of Phase II will be coordinated with ongoing work on Phase I which permits significant cost savings.  It will enable Phase II to come on stream by 2014/2015 by which time large scale energy from waste facilities will be cost competitive against landfill with landfill tax by then being £80 per tonne.”

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