A £3 billion renewable energy project backed by Irish company Solar21 has been accepted for examination by the United Kingdom’s national planning body.
Once fully operational, the North Lincolnshire Green Energy Park — which will convert waste products to electricity and will include, among other things, a plastic recycling facility and storage for captured carbon — will generate enough electricity to power 221,000 homes, the renewable energy investment company said in a statement on Monday.
Solar21, which had almost £49 million of assets on its books at the end of 2020, anticipates that some 760,000 tonnes of waste will be diverted from landfill each year, which will then be burned and converted into energy at the site. Ash produced in the process will then be used to make construction materials such as concrete blocks, while carbon generated in production will be captured and used in manufacturing.
The facility will also use electricity to produce green hydrogen, used as a clean fuel for cars and buses. EY has been selected as funding partner for the project.
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The proposal has now been accepted for examination by the UK’s planning inspectorate after being resubmitted following feedback. The planning body will set out a timetable for examination of the project in the next six months, Solar21 said. Because of the scale of the project, it will have to be greenlit by the UK’s secretary of state for energy as a “nationally significant infrastructure project”, it said.
Michael Bradley, chief executive of Rathcoole-headquartered Solar21, said the company expected a decision by early 2024.
“Historically, more than 98 per cent of similar applications have been successful, so we are both hopeful and relatively confident that this project will go ahead,” Mr Bradley said.
