£300m energy recovery centre in Darwen gets green light

A state-of-the-art £300m energy recovery centre will be built in Darwen, Lancashire, after Blackburn and Darwen Council gave the green light to SUEZ to start building yesterday (August 15). 

The centre will take residual black bag waste from homes and businesses across the region that would otherwise have gone to landfill and use it to generate electricity.

It is expected to process up to 500,000 tonnes of waste each year, enough to generate sustainable electricity for over 60,000 homes — the equivalent of every home in Blackburn with Darwen.

In 2017-18, over 330,000 tonnes of local authority collected waste originating in Blackburn with Darwen, Lancashire and Blackpool was sent to landfill and almost 60,000 tonnes more was incinerated without energy recovery.

However, the construction of the facility is still dependent on securing a contract to continue managing Lancashire’s residual (black bag) waste.

SUEZ says the new facility will create over fifty skilled and semi-skilled jobs in the town and ‘drastically reduce’ Lancashire’s reliance on landfill.

Gary Mayson, chief operating officer — energy at SUEZ recycling and recovery UK, said: ‘We are delighted that Blackburn with Darwen Councillors have approved our application.

‘The proposal to construct a high-tech energy-recovery centre in Darwen could see up to half a million tonnes of waste diverted from landfill; the equivalent of over 60,000 homes powered by sustainable electricity; and up to 50 skilled and semi-skilled local jobs created.’

Photo Credit – SUEZ