Construction of Grangemouth £200m energy plant stops as questions raised over contractor's future

The massive multi-million pound facility, located in Earls Gate Park, was expected to be fully operational by the middle of the year, creating around 30 full-time operational jobs.

It was hoped it would prevent 216,000 tonnes of household and commercial waste from entering landfill annually.

However, now questions are being asked of CNIM – a firm responsible for delivering 163 energy from waste plants all over the world.

A spokesperson for owners and project sponsors Earls Gate Energy Centre Ltd said: “We can confirm the main contractor CNIM (Earls Gate) Limited, responsible for the site, has not been working since its return from the New Year break.

“Earls Gate Energy Centre Limited is the owner of the project and is seeking information from CNIM to understand the issue. It is known that CNIM E&E Division is currently undergoing a financial restructuring with support from the French Government.

“Earls Gate Energy Centre Limited, which is the sponsor of the project and its owner, is financially sound and highly committed to the completion and delivery of the project but are unable to comment further until it is fully appraised of the situation.”

The energy centre was also earmarked to provide heat and power for nearby CalaChem and adjacent industrial plants, and export any surplus electricity produced to the National Grid.

According to developers, the technology involved – Energy from Waste (EfW) Combined Heat and Power (CHP) – in the new facility is seen by many as the most environmentally sustainable solution for the management of residual municipal waste.

In the process of preventing over 200,000 tonnes of household and commercial waste from entering landfill, it will convert the waste into 79GWh of green electricity and 81GWh of heat in the form of steam.

The facility – which was going to be operated by MES Environmental, a subsidiary of CNIM, for a contract duration of 25 years – would also have decarbonised CalaChem’s annual energy consumption to an amount equivalent to taking around 17,000 cars off the road for a year.

Thank you for reading this article on our free-to-read website. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

Please consider purchasing a subscription to our print newspaper to help fund our trusted, fact-checked journalism.

https://www.localsubsplus.co.uk/nord/dm/FKH/V