A major deal has been signed that could create more than 50 waste to energy jobs in North Wales.
EQTEC plc has an agreement with Logik Developments to purchase and develop land off Weighbridge Road, Deeside Industrial Estate, Flintshire.
The site of the former Gaz De France power station already has planning for a £50m waste management facility comprising a materials recycling facility and anaerobic digestion facility which would manage residual waste of up to 182,000 tonnes per annum.
EQTEC plc wants to enhance this process by making the waste to energy solution more complete by adding a gasification plant to the existing planning permission.
The original proposed facility would enable residual wastes to be diverted from landfill, producing up to 2MW of green energy and maximising the recovery of recyclate.
Adding their Advanced Conversion Technology to the existing planning permission with the gasification plant could generate a further 20MW’s of green electricity (which would be enough to power 37,500 homes) and 27 MW of thermal heat production.
This would be used to power the plant and the surplus would be exported either to the grid or locally.
An EQTEC spokesman said: “The site is currently vacant and is located within an area identified for employment use within the UDP, surrounded by industrial uses of a similar scale.
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“Its development would enable the beneficial reuse of the land and bring economic benefit through the provision of jobs, 42 new jobs directly once its operational and plus more indirect opportunities through the supply chain.
“The construction phase would also create jobs but the number is hard to say as we will be using established construction/technology companies. The Advanced Conversion Technology extension outlined below would also add a further 5-10 job opportunities directly plus a number indirectly through the supply chain.
“It is our preference to create private wire and heat networks for using the surplus electricity and heat, as we are aware that there are large energy users in the area.”
EQTEC has paid Logik £100,000 for the exclusivity arrangement, which runs until March 2021 and can be extended by mutual agreement.
The proposed purchase price for the project will be £4.6m plus a further amount based on final planning achieved and a detailed financial model up to £5.4m.
They added that talks were ongoing with Welsh Government over the scheme and Caulmerts had been engaged to help move the project forward.