Peel successful with biomass plans

Peel Energy has been granted consent for a revised application to build a biomass energy plant at Ince Marshes in Cheshire.

The proposed plant, designed by Manchester-based Fletcher Rae Architects, will be capable of producing 20MW of electricity as well as heat and steam. It will use around 175,000 tonnes of waste wood each year. The original consent was for a plant to produce bio-ethanol, an industrial alcohol produced by fermentation. Changes to regulation affected the market and made the scheme unviable, Peel said.

Jon Burley of Peel Energy said: "We would like to thank the council for giving the plans a fair hearing. We realise that applications like these are not easy. However, these are exactly the kind of decisions that are required if the UK is to meet its renewable energy targets and avoid valuable resources going into landfill.

"We are very pleased with the outcome and look forward to taking the project on to the next stage, ultimately delivering renewable energy and jobs for the region. We are also keen to continue our dialogue with community groups via the Ince Park Community Forum as we have done throughout the application process."

The two-year construction of the plant could begin in 2012 meaning that the plant would be making a substantial contribution to regional targets by 2014.

The plant would sit next to another energy-from-waste plant at Ince Marshes planned by Peel in a joint venture with US firm Covanta, with a 95MW capacity.

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