Planning permission granted for £300 million Teesside waste to energy facility

• The waste-to-energy facility, a joint venture led by Low Carbon Ltd and PMAC Energy Ltd, when complete will export up to 49.9MW of low-carbon electricity to the grid, enough to power 100,000 homes

• Hundreds of local jobs to be created to support the UK’s net-zero ambition

Low Carbon, in partnership with PMAC Energy, announced today that planning consent has been granted for its state-of-the-art waste to energy facility: the Redcar Energy Centre.

Set for completion in 2025, the Redcar Energy Centre will divert between 350,000 and 450,000 tonnes per annum of refuse away from UK landfill. It will generate up to 49.9MW of low-carbon electricity for the local grid – enough to power over 100,000 homes – and deliver more than £300 million of inward investment to the region.

The planning permission includes consent for the development of a Materials Recovery Facility adjacent to the Energy Centre. The Materials Recovery Facility will have the ability to process and recycle up to 200,000 tonnes of municipal, commercial and industrial waste each year, extracting valuable metals for recovery.

The Redcar Energy Centre is expected to become a cornerstone development for the UK’s largest industrial zone as part of the South Tees Development Corporation’s ambitious redevelopment objectives, providing heat and electricity to advanced manufacturing facilities in the local area.

Occupying a 25-acre brownfield site within the Redcar Bulk Terminal (RBT) on the River Tees, the project will benefit from the existing strong road, rail and port links which means the centre can participate in both UK and European waste-derived fuel markets. In line with its ambitions to be a greener, more efficient and lower cost solution to landfill and export, it will also offer zero emission energy from waste in partnership with the Net Zero Teeside Carbon Capture project which is located next door to the site.

The development is also keen to tap into the highly skilled local workforce which is expected to employ over 400 workers during the 36 month construction phase and require over 100 full time positions once operational. The project will also require the support of many local businesses indirectly creating further local employment.

With the UK Waste to Energy market undergoing significant recent growth and transformation, the Redcar development team are aware of the crucial role that waste supply and construction partners will now play in the next stage of the project’s development. The project team will engage a range of fuel suppliers for the project and welcomes further discussions with potential partners over the next 6-12 months to ensure a fundable yet flexible long term feedstock solution.

Roy Bedlow, Founder and Chief Executive of Low Carbon said: “The 49.9MW subsidy-free Redcar Energy Centre will use proven conventional technology to provide a reliable source of controllable energy for more than 100,000 homes. It will divert more than 350,000 tonnes of waste away from landfill, add flexibility to the fuel and recycling supply chains and provide hundreds of jobs to an area with a proud industrial heritage. Low Carbon is delighted to bring forward our 3rd consented waste project in the UK and to use our experience in developing large-scale renewable and low-carbon energy projects to help deliver this project in the Tees Valley.”

Robert Lewis, Founder of PMAC Energy: “It has been a long term goal of PMAC Energy to develop a large scale sustainable Energy from Waste recovery centre in the North East and we are proud to have Low Carbon’s support in developing the Redcar Energy Centre. We have used our extensive experience handling and processing waste derived fuels throughout Europe to design a flexible solution for both waste management and energy recovery to support the growing list of future developments in the neighbouring South Tees area that require renewable energy direct.”

ENDS

About Low Carbon

Low Carbon is a leading renewable energy investment and asset management platform committed to the development and operation of renewable energy at scale. Low Carbon invests into both renewable energy developers and projects across a range of renewable energy technologies including solar PV, wind, energy storage, waste-to-energy and energy efficiency. Low Carbon, a certified B Corp, has a proven track record in the development, construction, financing and management of renewable energy assets and remains involved in the projects for the long term with a dedicated asset management team that manages assets on balance sheet and for third parties. The team is actively engaged in the UK and European waste-to-energy market with 6 assets in current development totalling 220MW and with a broader renewable energy pipeline of more than 4GW, they are well-positioned to capitalise on opportunities as the need for renewable energy and energy security increases.

About PMAC Energy

PMAC Energy Ltd (PMAC) was the original promoter of the project and initiated discussions with Redcar Bulk Terminal back in 2016 to develop this site into a Waste to Energy facility as well as a full waste processing facility incorporating extracting recyclable material for export and domestic use to the commodity markets and an ash processing facility to recover the ash as aggregate and recover the metals.

PMAC has a background in waste processing and procurement for the past 25 years and is involved in moving waste fuel around the UK and Europe for energy recovery and recycling and currently hold contracts to supply waste derived fuels to other European Energy from Waste facilities. PMAC initially secured the land and started the development process and the project soon required a lot more funding. The project SPV was created and Low Carbon became majority owner of the project to fund the remaining development phase and bring the project to financial close with the procurement of construction funding