Conference review


Energy from waste: Today’s big picture


Three themes kept recurring at the 9th International Energy from Waste Conference held in London last week; these were the need for governmental policy certainty, greater emphasis on combined heat and power from energy from waste and feedstock security. Geraldine Faulkner reports.


Geraldine Faulkner, Editor


J


OHN FERGUSON, head of strategy, Binn Eco Park and director, EcoidealM, and conference chairman, opened proceedings by giving the global picture. “Fundamentally we’re challenged


by population growth. There are two major problems for waste management; increasing pressure on global resources and the need to supply fully integrated waste management systems. I’m fascinated by the concept of closed loop recycling. It is the challenge we have that the industry sits between the raw material and the producer. Much of that material simply can’t be recycled and the landfill option is no longer viable.” Ferguson went on to point out that: “Big


plants are in the wrong place so you can’t use the heat and there’s the ongoing challenge of adopting new technology. Gasification has been promising for years literally and not delivering. We have cancelled PFIs which has created uncertainty and penalised local authorities.” Representing the Department for Energy


and Climate Change (DECC), Dr Bernard Bulkin, expert chair of the office for renewable energy deployment, was keen to reassure delegates that the UK is on track to meet its target of 15% of renewable energy by 2020: “Together with EU colleagues and other countries, we are very focussed on renewables and we are on track to achieve this target.”


However Dr Bulkin admitted that: “On


heat, it has to be said we’re still on the runway, we haven’t taken off. That is perhaps the biggest challenge.” “We are interested in looking at different


kinds of technologies. Let’s face it, everyone in the clean energy business has become a subsidy junkie and we need to get past this. The way this is going to become a big industry across all sorts of sectors is to become cheap and competitive and to drive fossil fuels out of the equation,” said the man from DECC before adding: “We now need a grid for the 21st century for all the kinds of generation we’re going to have.”


At the highest level Finally, Dr Bulkin told the conference that the prime minister has written to John Hayes, the energy minister, to say he wants to look at what is inhibiting the growth of EfW and whether we are doing as well as other countries. “This has attention at the highest level of government. We realise the EfW agenda spans many areas such as food waste, municipal waste and AD sludge. We have to put together the components to create ‘big things’.” In response to a question from the floor, Dr


Bulkin said: “There are three principles that are important; transparency, longevity and certainty (tlc).” Keynote speaker, Estelle Brachlianoff,


CEO of Veolia environmental services (UK), stressed how the UK waste management sector is key to Britain’s green economy: “Energy from waste has a lot going for it;


achieving consistently high levels of quality and approaching 90% availability for the


majority of our plants. Energy recovery facilities have the potential to contribute 3% of our total electricity demand.” Looking ahead to the future, Brachlianoff said there should be greater emphasis on CHP that is more efficient and more acceptable along with investment in piping infrastructure.” With the potential to heat 300 homes, the


CEO added ruefully that SELCHP (South East London Combined Heat and Power), the energy recovery facility would then at last merit its title.


Green Investment Bank’s brief Edward Northam, MD, co-head of waste & bioenergy, Green Investment Bank, began his presentation by admitting: “Based on enquiries, we haven’t communicated our message as effectively as we would like. “Government has ambitious green targets


with a suite of policies in place to support their achievement. Even after these measures, finance-related issues will continue to limit the scale and pace of the transition. “Our mission is to accelerate investment


in the UK’s transition to a green economy. We are six months into the programme with two and half years to go.” Northam stressed the GIB is not a


“provider of grants/regional assistance, nor is it a provider of subsidised debt/equity, a taker of high risk/low reward or a provider of venture capital/development equity”. GIB has £3bn to invest over three years,


starting April 2012. However, Northam pointed out that while £3bn sounded a lot compared to a total priority sector investment funding requirement of over £200bn by 2020, it was a relatively small amount.


The shape of waste to come Professor William Powrie, professor of geotechnical engineering and dean of the faculty of engineering and the environment at the University of Southampton examined the shape of waste to come and gave an analysis of likely future waste arisings and implications for infrastructure. Powrie examined market factors that could


potentially affect arisings. These, he suggested, could comprise


relative poverty reducing UK consumption which could encourage recovery and re-use; resource scarcity driving an increase in the recovery of recyclables; waste companies becoming resource recovery companies. “For commercial wastes, major producers


may take steps to recover value themselves e.g. Tesco no longer sends any of the 500,000 tonnes of waste it generates annually to landfill.” Looking at policy/societal factors


potentially affecting fate of wastes, Powrie said these could include the possible EU ban on biodegradable waste to landfill by 2020/25; a complete EU ban on landfill (unlikely) while the planning process may become increasingly difficult for many waste facilities. “This is particularly true for all forms of thermal treatment,” he added along with difficulty in obtaining financing (e.g. banks already reluctant to fund unproven technology for PFIs). “We need to think carefully about the


totality of waste to make it more amenable to process it. We must be wary of quick fix solutions. The drive to continue to encourage residents to separate waste is important.” Powrie also suggested the industry shouldn’t


8 March 7 2013


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