Land Purchased For Site Of Proposed Energy-from-waste Plant

South Island Resource Recovery Limited (SIRRL), the joint venture company proposing to build an Energy-from-Waste plant near Waimate in South Canterbury, has purchased 15 hectares of land near Glenavy for its proposed plant.

SIRRL Board Director Paul Taylor said the company has purchased the land from Murphy Farms Limited and plans to build the proposed Energy-from-Waste plant on that site.

The land is on the corner of Carrolls and Morven Glenavy Roads, adjacent to the main trunk railway line – approximately 1.5km off state highway 1 and 2.5km north of Glenavy. The final land sale is subject to SIRRL being granted a resource consent to build the plant.

“We are preparing a resource consent application which we plan to lodge in the second half of this year. Consent to build the plant is required from both Environment Canterbury and the Waimate District Council,” says Paul Taylor.

“We appreciate that people want to know more about the technology we are proposing. We also want to make sure that people, particularly the Waimate community, can have their say on our proposal. That’s why we have asked Environment Canterbury to publicly notify our consent.

“SIRRL has engaged a range of experts to prepare a human health assessment and reports on air quality, greenhouse gas emissions, traffic, noise, landscape and visual impact, stormwater and domestic wastewater discharge.

“All of these reports will form part of our resource consent application to be considered by an independent commissioner and will also be publicly available.

“The Resource Management Act has very strict controls and unless we can prove that we will meet those requirements we will not be able to proceed”, says Paul Taylor.

Paul Taylor says that the proposed plant’s world-leading innovative technology will enable it to provide a secure renewable power supply for the local community as well as create jobs and growth for the Waimate region.

“There have been a lot of concerns and misinformation about emissions from the stack of the proposed Energy-from-Waste plant,” says Paul Taylor. “The plant will meet the New Zealand National Environmental Standards for Air Quality.

“Emissions from the stack will be 63.5% nitrogen, 21.8% water vapour, 7.5% carbon dioxide and 7.2% oxygen. The carbon dioxide emissions will be an important part of the overall greenhouse gas assessment that our independent expert will prepare for us as part of our resource consent application.

“We expect our assessment to confirm that over the life cycle of the plant, the overall greenhouse gas contribution will be less than what you would expect from a modern landfill receiving the same amount of waste. Energy-from-Waste plants do not emit any methane, unlike landfills.

“The proposed plant will bring significant economic benefits to the region, including work for up to 300 people in the build phase, and 100 direct and indirect roles once built,” says Paul Taylor.

“We will take the waste left behind after recycling – diverting it from landfill to where it can be used in a process that heats water into steam to drive a turbine to create electricity.

“Local businesses using coal fired boilers will be able to replace them with steam or electricity supplied from the plant.”

The plant will produce 240GWh, while Waimate’s current usage is 60GWh – this is more than four times Waimate’s annual power use. It also leaves 180GWh for additional energy usage opportunities or replacement of current ways of generating energy in the Waimate District.

Alpine Energy will use its network to distribute this power into the local community.

Farmer and landowner, Bruce Murphy says the main reason that Murphy Farms agreed to sell the land to SIRRL is that the family do not believe that landfills are a sustainable long-term option for waste disposal. “We know that high levels of methane gas and CO2 are generated by the rotting waste in the ground in landfills,” says Bruce Murphy.

Another reason Murphy Farms sold the land to SIRRL was that it would provide a reliable power source that would enable them to heat glasshouses they are considering building on their land.

“Glasshouses need large amounts of energy and CO2 which can be provided from the new plant,” says Bruce Murphy. “This will allow us to diversify our production and potentially create up to another 200 jobs in food production. This makes a lot of sense, not just for our family operation but also for the wider community.”

SIRRL has also been talking to KiwiRail about bringing waste to the new plant by rail instead of by truck.

“Any waste coming to the plant will already have had recyclables removed. Instead of landfilling the remaining waste, we want to dispose of this waste in a more environmentally friendly and safe manner while also creating energy for community and wider use,” says Paul Taylor.

“Recycling is the priority, and we are only interested in receiving waste that would otherwise go to landfill.

“Once our expert assessments are complete, we look forward to further local information sessions where we can talk in more detail about the technology and its benefits. We will let the community know well in advance when and where those sessions will take place.

“The Energy-from-Waste process and other information can be found on our website at www.projectkea.co.nz ” Paul Taylor says.

*Due to the New Zealand company’s partnership with international investors, SIRRL’s land purchase will be subject to the Government’s Offshore Investment Office approval process.

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