A new waste to energy biomass power plant has been given the approval for construction at a disused site at Tilbury Docks in Essex. The power plant will be fuelled by a combination of waste and biomass products and is expected to have a capacity of producing 60MW of electricity. The biomass portion of the fuel will be woodchips from various sources.

The company behind the proposal is Tilbury Green Power Limited which is a subsidiary of Express Energy, a renewable energy developer. Planning approval had to be granted from the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change under the Electricity Act because the plant is planned to produce over 50MW of power.

Construction is expected to take 3 years to bring the power plant on line and will provide jobs for up to 380 people. Once the plant becomes operational in 2012 it will require a staff of 120 to run.

One of the benefits of the power plant’s proposed location at the docks is that it will be easily accessible for delivery of fuel by barge. This will remove the need to use the city’s road network. Initially, 90% of the biomass is due to be sourced from Europe and America and only 10% from the UK. After three years of operation it is hoped that this will be turned around and 90% will be sourced from the UK and 10% from overseas.

“If we are to tackle climate change, we must reduce the amount of waste going to landfill and also make use of renewable sources of fuel. This power station will achieve both those objectives by turning waste into energy and using biomass, which will also contribute to delivering the U.K.’s renewable energy targets,” Energy and Climate Change Minister Phil Hunt said.