Widnes Biomass Facility

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Also known as Mersey Bioenergy, Widnes Biomass Facility is a Biomass EfW facility based on processing up to 147,000 tonnes of Wood Waste per annum generating 20 MWe of electricity for export to the National Grid with around 7.8 MWth available to local industry[1].


Widnes Biomass Facility
Operational
Site Location
Site Location

See Biomass EfW → page for a larger UK Wide map.

Operator Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor (BWSC)
Capacity 22.8 MWe
Feedstock Waste Wood
EPR (Waste Licence) JP3132RV
ROC Yes
CfD
CHP Yes

Operators Annual Report


Input Data

Year Wood Litter RDF Other Total
2017 19605 0 0 0 19605
2018 88077 0 0 0 88077
2019 129174 0 0 0 129174
2020 124624 0 0 0 124624
2021 143124 0 0 0 143124
2022 132199 0 0 0 132199


Output Data

Year IBA IBA %ge of Tot IN APC APC %ge of Tot IN
2017 664 3.39% 90 0.46%
2018 3529 4.01% 1668 1.89%
2019 4898 3.79% 2709 2.10%
2020 6466 5.19% 2864 2.30%
2021 8990 6.28% 3590 2.51%
2022 7637 5.78% 2978 2.25%

Stobart Biomass Plant
Stobart Biomass Plant


Summary

Also known as Mersey Bioenergy, Widnes Biomass Facility is a Biomass EfW facility based on processing up to 147,000 tonnes of Wood Waste per annum generating 20 MWe of electricity for export to the National Grid with around 7.8 MWth available to local industry[1].

The plant is located approximately 400m from the north bank of the River Mersey, approximately 0.6 miles west of Widnes Town Centre[2].

The project also intends to use the heat from the plant in the neighbouring wood drying facility which drys 140,000 tonnes of virgin wood material a year for sale into the wood chip and pellet market - which is projected to generate an additional income of around £200m during the same 16 year contract[3].

The plant was financed via a £7.5m equity investment for a 40% stake in the plant's holding company, Mersey Bioenergy Ltd (MBL) and was sold by Stobart Infrastructure to MBL for £2m[4]. The plant was also financed by the Green Investment Bank (GIB) (now Green Investment Group (GIG)) who provided 49% of the equity via a £17m mezzainine loan and a £13.2m equity investment via its Foresight UK Waste Resources & Energy Investments (UKWREI)[5]. The remainder of the £42.1 mezzanine finance was provided by GCP Infrastructure Investors. In additon, Investec Bank plc and Eksport Kredit Fonden (EKF) together committed £42.5m of senior loans to the project , while Stobart and Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor (BWSC), the projects engineering, procurement and construction contractor (EPC) both took an equity stake with commitments of £9.8m and £2.6m respectively[4], [3]. The total cost of the project is estimated to be around £110m[6], [7].

Plant

The facility entered into operation in May 2017 with BWSC chosen as the EPC contractor for the project. The boiler was supplied by Standardkessel GmbH and the technology is a standard pusher-type grate technology[8].

Annual Sustainability Tonnage Input/Fuel

The tonnage[9] received by the plant in the most recent Annual Sustainability Report and for the previous 3 years for 2020/21 was reported by Ofgem as below[10]:

Year Waste Wood (m3) Waste Wood (t) Straw Miscanthus Arboricultrual Waste Sawmill Residue Foresrty Residue Round Wood Short Rotation Coppice MBM Other Material
2020/21 0 113342 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2019/20 0 150525 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2018/19 0 63147 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2017/18 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Waste Tonnage, By Origin

The table shows a list of the Waste for the Permit JP3132RV, that has arrived into sites as reported to the Regulator and then publicised in their reported statistics. The Data was last updated on October 2024. The total reported tonnage arriving at the site was: 132,666.93t.

Where this tonnage exceeds that reported in year of the corresponding annual report, this may be due to the following reasons:

  • Tonnage may have been received but not incinerated, i.e. the material is held pending incineration (the operator return to the EA reports as received whereas the annual report focuses on when the waste is incinerated.)
  • Material may have been received into the site but treated in some other way than incineration.
  • Material may have been received on the but transferred out of site for disposal/treatment at another site rather than incineration on the site.
EWC Code Origin of Waste Tonnes In
19 12 07 Halton 132666.93


The Wood Waste fuel supply used to generate energy[1] is provided under a 16 year Fuel Supply Agreement (FSA) with Stobart Energy[4] which equates to a contract worth £108m over the 16-year period[3].

References