Viridian to build bioenergy plant
More use of brown bins was needed to boost viability of innovative project, writes Fearghal O’Connor
NORTHERN Irish energy player Viridian is set to build a bioenergy plant near Dublin and is in talks with CRH to buy the proposed site.
The new power station will be built on land owned by the buildings materials giant at Huntstown Quarry near Finglas, next to a gas-fired power station previously built by Viridian.
The plant would generate up to 3.8 megawatts of electricity from 90,000 tonnes of non-hazardous biodegradable waste a year.
The company is now seeking a five-year extension to previously granted planning permission for the plant. The original application was made by a company called Stream BioEnergy in 2013 but that planning permission has not been implemented.
In its new planning application for the 2.38 hectare site, Viridian said that “a variety of circumstances has prevented the implementation of the application by Stream”. It said that it needed to extend the duration of the permission due to “matters of a commercial, financial and technical nature beyond the control of the applicant which substantially militated against either the commencement of development”.
Donegal-based bioenergy development company Connective Energy had acquired the development rights for the project and Viridian said it was “fully engaged” with this company.
“Given that a planning permission runs with the land rather than with an individual or company, it is submitted that the making of this application by Viridian is appropriate.”
Connective had previously been unable to exercise lease options for the site, but Viridian was now in discussions with CRH’s estates division to purchase the land. The project had also faced uncertainty because of issues around the reliable sourcing of feedstock because of the delay in the roll out and slow uptake of household brown bins, said the company. An 18-month delay in enforcement by the EPA of new stricter guidelines for landfill and incinerator sites had also caused issues. A number of measures, including legislative changes, had been put in place to tackle this and other challenges in the waste management area.
Viridian said the project had also faced challenges to its delivery under a Government supported incentive scheme known as REFIT within the required timeframe. But Viridian said it intended to use an “innovative technical solution to treat a type of waste feedstock which is not normally processed and used in anaerobic digestion facilities.”
“This technical solution removes one of the economic barriers to developing an anaerobic digestion facility in Ireland,” it said.
The company said that it intended to avail of the incentive scheme and therefore the bioenergy plant had to be operational by the end of September 2019. Nevertheless, it required a five-year extension to the planning permission “to avoid any unnecessary constraints and to allow flexibility”.
Viridian, through its subsidiary Energia, is one of the main independent players in the Irish electricity market. It has previously built two new power plants in Ireland without state guarantees. It employs more than 600 people across Ireland and Northern Ireland.