FORRES has been selected as the proposed location for the north of Scotland’s first ultra high-tech, zero-emmission, waste-to-power plant if Moray Council approves the building of a state-of-the-art green energy generation complex alongside the A96.
The “Gazette” can exclusively reveal that the proposed Forres Clean Power Energy Recovery Centre would provide 30 full-time jobs and have the capacity to turn up to 200,000 tonnes a year of the area’s non-hazardous domestic, commercial, industrial and organic waste, most of which currently goes to landfill sites that are nearing full capacity, into electricity and high-grade thermal energy.
London-based environmental development company Clean Power Properties Limited and Network Rail have fired the opening shot in a bid to secure planning permission for the £60 million plant to be built on six acres of former rail yard and disused brownfield land owned by Network Rail and boundaried by Forres Railway Station and the A96, the Greshop Industrial Estate, the Waterford Industrial Estate and Mosset Road.
The project would be privately funded and run with none of the construction or operating costs borne by Moray Council, who would benefit from massive savings on landfill tax and recycling costs with Moray residents and businesses spared the task of separating household waste into organic, recyclable and non-recyclable bins as all domestic and non-hazardous domestic, commercial and industrial waste would go directly to the plant.
The proposed Forres plant would generate 7MW of electricity - enough power to supply around 8,000 homes - which would be fed into the National Grid’s local distribution network by underground cables and residual thermal energy generated by the treatment processes would be piped by heat loop to the site’s perimeter and onwards for use as cheap source of heating for businesses and homes within connection distance of the plant.
The proposed Forres energy conversion facility would operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with waste deliveries restricted to 7am to 7pm on weekdays and 8am and 1pm on Saturdays with the majority of deliveries slated for off-peak hours.
An environmental impact assessement is being compiled to identify the project’s potential impact as well as an environmental statement ahead of the submission of a detailed planning application to Moray Council planners.
The Scoping Report details upgrades and improvements to the proposed road access to the complex via a widened level crossing which gives access to Waterford Road to cope with up to 100 HGV
If planning permission is granted, the construction phase is slated to begin in 2014 with the complex expected to go on stream in the final quarter of 2015.
A public consultation event will be held later this year. See this week's Gazette for a two-page special and full report.
