Spencer Group, a leading privately-owned engineering business, has sealed the financial package and construction contract for its Energy Works power plant. The 25MW net power output facility is on course to be operational by January 2018.
Hull-based Spencer has steered the Energy Works project since its conception in 2010, making a multi-million pounds investment through Energy Works (Hull) Ltd to take the scheme to its delivery phase.
The development will be funded by three new equity partners in Energy Works (Hull) Ltd –Bioenergy Infrastructure Group (BIG), an independent power producer established to invest in the construction of new biomass and energy from waste (EfW) plants in the UK; Noy Fund, an Israeli investment group; and John Hancock, through its affiliate Hancock Natural Resource Group (HNRG), timber, agriculture, and renewable energy investment management company. Spencer also remains a shareholder in the business.
Energy Works has signed an engineer, procure and construct (EPC) contract with M+W. Spencer will carry out the civil works as well as managing the construction phase and subsequent management of the operations of the completed plant on behalf of the investors.
Energy Works will be the largest facility of its type in the UK and the first advanced gasification power plant supported by the government’s contracts for difference (CfD) arrangements. The CfD allocation ensures a guaranteed price for the renewable energy produced by Energy Works and exported into the National Grid, up to 2033.
The project has also been awarded a grant of almost £20m from the European Regional Development Fund.
Energy Works will be built on an eight-acre riverside site in Cleveland Street, Hull. It is designed to generate electricity from domestic and commercial refuse-derived fuel, using an innovative energy recovery process called fluidised bed gasification. Recent refinement of the scheme has included provision of an enhanced pre-treatment facility to deliver improved flexibility in feedstock handling. Energy Works expects to generate sufficient electricity to power 43,000 homes.
Charlie Spencer, chairman of both Spencer Group and Energy Works (Hull) Ltd, said: “A development of this scale and complexity naturally poses many challenges and all those involved are to be congratulated for their commitment and perseverance in taking the project through to this point.
“We are very pleased to have assembled an impressive group of partners to fund and deliver Energy Works, enabling us to establish a facility with outstanding green credentials in our home city, which is becoming recognised as the UK’s leading centre for renewable technologies.”
Neil Bennett, director for M+W Group’s Global Energy Business Unit, said: “Energy Works will be the UK’s first major renewable energy project using advanced conversion technology to reach financial close within the new CfD framework. Meeting the requirements of this subsidy regime was extremely challenging and I am therefore delighted that our solution is competitive, effective and bankable. We now look forward to delivering one of the UK’s most exciting and landmark renewable energy facilities.”
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