The construction of the £200 million energy recovery facility began in November 2011, employing over 550 people to install the technology and engineering.
“On a project that is more than twice the size of two Premier football pitches, it requires a phenomenal effort on everyone’s behalf to make sure that we operate safely and efficiently” said Paul Rowland, Regional Manager for Viridor. “Thanks to everyone’s hard work and determination, our time spent without lost time accidents has enabled us to put £18,000 back into the local community through donations to charitable projects and schools.”
Mr Rowland described the Oxfordshire facility as ‘world class’. It will now begin diverting waste away from landfill, significantly reducing the amount of methane gas released from Oxfordshire County Council waste disposal facilities into the atmosphere. The plant began to receive its first amounts of waste in June 2014 with a first burn being completed soon after. It began to export electricity to the National Grid in July and will now be capable of transforming 300,000 tonnes of residual waste per year into energy. This will also deliver significant environmental, social and economic benefits for local taxpayers.
The project covers a total area of eleven hectares and incorporates 260 kilometres of electric cabling within the building plus a further 9 kilometres of cabling to connect the ERF to the National Grid.
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