Peterborough Renewable Energy to build first zero-landfill energy farm

The UK government had approved the construction of the country’s first energy park that will process mixed waste and will convert it into renewable energy, including the segregation of metal, glass and plastics for recycling. The 80MW project, to be erected in Peterborough, will use waste to produce sufficient energy to power 60,000 houses and to save 600,000 tonnes of harmful carbon dioxide per year.

The energy park will bring over 300 jobs during the plant’s construction period and 109 green collar jobs once the station is operational. MP Stewart Jackson from Peterborough hoped that the project will significantly reduce the UK’s carbon footprint, divert waste from landfills and offer more green jobs.

The green facility will provide zero-landfill solution, and will bring together mechanical recycling, gasification, plasma melting and food waste digestion in one location. The system, which will be designed by Peterborough Renewable Energy, is hoped to become the first of a countrywide network of such facilities.

One of the government officials who signed the approval, David Kidney, who is also the Minister of Energy and Climate Change, informed that the UK needs to produce 15 per cent of its needed energy from renewable sources by 2020 and that biomass could supply about a third of the required energy source.

The eastern counties of England have a renewable target of 17 per cent for 2020, not including offshore wind farms. The Peterborough plant, with 20 years of life, is expected to deliver 10 per cent of the target and to save 12 million tonnes of greenhouse pollutants.