Residual Waste EFW: Difference between revisions

[[Residual Waste]] can be used as a feedstock for [[Energy from Waste]] (EfW) facilities and [[Residual Waste]] is considered as partially renewable or a low carbon energy source as a result of the energy produced from the fraction of [[Residual Waste]] derived from [[Biomass]] that is considered renewable<ref name="foo> Defra, 2014. [https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/24612/pb14130-energy-waste-201402.pdf Energy from Waste: A guide to the debate February 2014 (revised edition).] London.</ref>.

==Operational EfW==

The following list summarizes all [[EfW]] sites that were operational as of January 2020, with limited summary information in the table. More detailed information can be found by clicking through to the site-specific page:

[[File:Location of EfWs in UK.png|600px|right|Locations of Operational residual waste EfWs in the UK]]

{|Class="wikitable"

! ID !! Site Name !! Capacity (kt)

Summary site information collated from a variety of sources including: Monksleigh<ref name="monk">[http://www.monksleigh.com Monksleigh Ltd]</ref>, Tolvik<ref name="tolv">[https://www.tolvik.com Tolvik]</ref>, [[EA]], [[SEPA]], [[NRW]], [[DEFRA]], [[BEIS]] and owner and developer websites</small>.

ID item 3 has multiple line entries - the capacity of all entries is shown once in the first line, consolidating the later ones and resulting in a 0 entry for those consolidated.

The map, right, contains the locations of all the sites listed above - please note that due to scale and cartographic limitations some of the numbers in the list might not be shown on the map due to sites being in close proximity, or sites in areas of high density. This does not mean that the site marker is not there. An example of this is Ferrybridge as both FM1 & FM2 are in geographically similar locations, a few 100m apart, and as a result the location markers will appear on top of each other, and as a result one will block the other's numerical id. This also applies to the following maps on sites in construction and planning.

Historically, the UK has been very dependent on [[Landfill]] or [[Incineration]] without energy recovery for [[Disposal]] of [[Residual Waste]]. The landfill diversion targets set in the mid 1990s promoted [[EfW]] developments. The diversion of residual waste away from [[Landfill]] and into [[EfW]] processes reduces emissions of methane and pollution originating from [[Landfill]] sites and increases production of renewable energy<ref name="foo" />. [[Energy from Waste]] is the now the main method for dealing with [[Residual Waste]], with [[Landfill]] of [[Residual Waste]] being the least preferred method, as outlined in the [[Waste Hierarchy]]<ref name="foo" />.  

In 2018, the amount of residual waste that was sent to EfW processes in the UK increased by 5.6%, amounting to a total of 11.5 million tonnes being sent to 42 operational EfW facilities across the UK<ref name="foo2>Derived from Tolvik Consulting, 2019. [https://www.tolvik.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Tolvik-EfW-Statistics-2018-Report_July-2019-final-amended-version.pdf UK Energy from Waste Statistics – 2018. Gloucestershire.][online] </ref>. This represents 41.8% of the total residual waste produced in the UK in 2018 (increasing from 39.5% in 2017)<ref name="foo2" />. The total power generated from EfW facilities in 2018 was 6,153 GWh, this supplied 1.9% of the total UK power generation, and gives an average of 536 kWh of power generated per tonne of residual waste treated at UK EfW facilities<ref name="foo2" />.

The graph below displays how the tonnage of residual waste processes by UK EfW facilities has changed over recent years, and excludes sites reported as operational in the previous section that were commissioned in 2019 and early 2020.

|+style="caption-side:bottom;"|Changes in residual waste tonnage processed by EfWs<ref name="foo2" />

| <graph>{

"data":[{

"values":[

{"x":2018,"y":11.5}

]

  ]

|'''Year''' || 2006 || 2007 || 2008 || 2009 || 2010 || 2011 || 2012 || 2013 || 2014 || 2015 || 2016 || 2017 || 2018

|'''Tonnes''' || 3.3 || 3.3 || 3.3 || 3.6 || 4.2 || 4.8 || 5.2 || 5.5 || 6.7 || 8.4 || 10.1 || 10.9 || 11.5

|}

The table below shows the power and heat generation from residual waste EfW facilities in the UK between 2014-2018.<ref name="foo2" />

|'''Year''' || 2014 || 2015 || 2016 || 2017 || 2018

|'''Net Power Export (GWh_e)''' ||3,368||4,636||5,241||6,187||6,153

|'''Net Heat Export (GWh_th)''' ||NA||554||730||865||1,112

England produced 12.5 million tonnes of [[Residual Waste]] from Households in 2016<ref>[[DEFRA]] [https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-waste-data UK Statistics on Waste 2020]</ref>, and it is estimated that there will be an increase in [[EfW]] capacity for [[Residual Waste]] by 2 million tonnes/year by 2022 <ref name="foo3"> Tolvik Consulting, 2017. [http://www.esauk.org/application/files/6015/3589/6453/UK_Residual_Waste_Capacity_Gap_Analysis.pdf UK Residual Waste: 2030 Market Review. Environmental Services Association.]</ref>.

With the increasing social, economic and political drive to Prevent, [[Reuse]] and [[Recycle]] more waste, in line with the [[Waste Hierarchy]] and the [[Circular Economy]] the amount of [[Residual Waste]] is expected to decrease in the medium to long term<ref name="foo" />. The exact magnitude of this reduction and the [[Residual Waste]] continuing to need to be delivered to [[EfW]] has been debated at length by different commentators over the last few years.

In addition there are some plants below which are reported as commencing construction, but this only applied to initial works or the construction of adjacent infrastructure, and not the [[EfW]] element of the project. The sites that fall into this category (i.e. the [[EfW]] is not thought to be under construction) in the list below include ID numbers 53, 59, 60, 63, 65, and 68.

 

{|Class="wikitable"

! ID !! Site Name !! Capacity (kt)

Summary site information collated from a variety of sources including: Monksleigh<ref name="monk" />, Tolvik<ref name="tolv" />, [[EA]], [[SEPA]], [[NRW]], [[DEFRA]], [[BEIS]] and owner and developer websites</small>

{{#get_db_data: db=engy |from=efwdb |where=status='Planning' and cap > 0 |data=site=site,id=id,cap=cap}}

{|Class="wikitable"

! ID !! Site Name !! Capacity (kt)

{{!}} {{{site}}}

Summary site information collated from a variety of sources including: Monksleigh<ref name="monk" />, Tolvik<ref name="tolv" />, [[EA]], [[SEPA]], [[NRW]], [[DEFRA]], [[BEIS]] and owner and developer websites</small>

 

==Income Economics (Overview)==

The income for an EFW facility is secured from the following main sources:

# [[Gate Fee]] - secured via a [[Fuel Supply Agreement]] or [[FSA]]

 

==Gate Fees==

[[Gate Fee]] is typically between 50 to 70% of the income received and so is a key component of the overall income to a project, and is influenced by a number of factors. [[WRAP]] publish an annual report<ref name="WRAP 2019">[https://www.wrap.org.uk/gatefees2019 WRAP Gate Fee Report 2019]</ref> on [[Gate Fee]]s for different waste facilities and the factors influencing them. The table below summarizes the gate fees reported in 2018, the following two graphs show the range of [[Gate Fee]] over time, and the table at the end shows the factors influencing [[Gate Fee]] as reported by interviews with respondents as part of the report process:

{| class="wikitable"

! Type of [[ERF]] !! Responses !! Median !! Mode<ref>Mode is the gate fee range (in £5 increments) which received the most responses in the survey data.</ref> !! Range<ref>Range lists simply the range between the maximum and minimum data points in the survey data collected. </ref>!!No. of Gate Fees Reported

|+ style="caption-side:bottom;" | Key Influencing factors of [[Gate Fee]]s in 2018 and in the future (Table 37 and Table 38 combined)<ref name="WRAP 2019" /> ''(expanded example from original tables in italics)''

| Contractual changes, other than inflation increase || 15 || 24%||7||11%

The [[WRAP]] report<ref name="WRAP 2019" /> focuses on local authority customers, where 71% of contracts were [[PFI]]/[[PPP]] contracts of duration of 20 years or more. The emphasis on the factors on [[Gate Fee]]s for shorter term contracts, and contracts that rely more heavily on [[Commercial and Industrial Waste]] and different types of [[Waste Derived Fuel]] will be different. The most significant issues/emphasis, if interviewed, would likely to be supply/demand at the time of committing to a contract (typically much shorter in duration) and the fuel specification/[[Waste Derived Fuel]] specification - the more processing the fuel requires to meet the [[EfW]] plant input specification, the lower the [[Gate Fee]] that can be secured (primarily as the [[Gate Fee]] has to acknowledge the additional processing cost required to meet that specification).

 

Income from the export of electricity makes up the majority of the income other than [[Gate Fee]], although this can be more heavily influenced by projects with any subsidies for renewable power (i.e. [[ROC]] and [[CFD]]). The [[PPA]] comprises different elements of payment, but the principle payment is related to baseload power, the value of which fluctuates in the market. [[PPA]]s therefore are normally a balance between optimizing price per Megawatt-hour (normally as a percentage of baseload price) while managing downside risk, over the period of the contract. Hence a project with 15MWe export operating over 8,000 hours a year would have 120,000 Megawatt-hours a year at the baseload price. The variation in baseload price can be seen in the following graph from [[Ofgem]]<ref>[https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/data-portal/all-charts/policy-area/electricity-wholesale-markets: Ofgem Wholesale Electricity Charts]</ref>:

<br clear='left'/>