The Bristol office of international law firm Osborne Clarke has advised hi-tech engineering firm M+W Group on its development of the UK’s largest waste-to-energy plant of its kind.
When completed, the £200m Energy Works scheme in Kingston upon Hull will be able to generate up to 28MW of electricity a year by treating waste – enough to supply 40,000 homes.
It will be the largest facility of its type in the UK and the first advanced gasification power plant supported by the Government’s Contracts for Difference (CfD) arrangements, which have been put in place to stimulate investment in green energy developments to achieve targets for carbon reduction.
The Osborne Clarke team was led by Bristol-based partner Carl Thompson with assistance from Elspeth Vincent and Ben Martin. Osborne Clarke has around 400 people at its Temple Quay head office.
German-owned M+W Group, which has its UK head office in Chippenham, specialises in the energy, science and research and advanced manufacturing industry sectors. It will be the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor on Energy Works responsible for the design and build of the new facility that will incorporate the latest fluidised bed gasification technology.
It is designed to reduce the need to for local landfill as well as relying on fossil fuel generated power to meet local energy demand
The development will be funded by three equity partners – the Bioenergy Infrastructure Group (BIG), an independent power producer established to invest in the construction of new energy plants in the UK; Noy Fund, an Israeli investment group focused on major infrastructure projects; and John Hancock, a long-established Canadian-based financial services group.
The plant will be built on two adjacent brownfield sites covering 12 acres in the industrial heart of the city.
The development aims to promote a better understanding of how new technologies and techniques can transform the way waste is managed, including the latest methods of recycling and the use of alternative fuels to produce sustainable energy.
An educational ‘energy academy’ will be built on site providing modern research and development facilities in collaboration with Hull University.
Working on the project alongside M+W will be two main sub-contractors; Outotec, an international specialist in advanced gasification technology; and Spencer Group, the Hull-based engineering and construction business leading the civil engineering works for the new facility.
Construction is due to start in January with completion scheduled for summer 2018.
Pictured: An artist’s impression of the £200m Energy Works scheme
