A report undertaken by Eunomia has shown that planning isn’t as much a barrier to residual treatment capacity as it seems.
The third issue of the Residual Waste Infrastructure Review, shows that contrary to industry perception, residual treatment capacity is quickly receiving planning consent with it being granted faster than applications are made.
Over the last six months, 2.6 million tonnes of capacity got planning consent. Although some of these are finding it difficult to reach financial close, an additional 1.1 million tonnes of treatment capacity has come on stream.
Eunomia principal consultant Adam Baddeley said: “The evidence shows that all regions of the UK are on track to reach sufficient or overcapacity of residual treatment infrastructure between 2015 and 2018.
“The forthcoming end of the Renewable Obligation (RO) regime and uncertainty over forthcoming Feed-in Tariffs is hastening the development of many incineration and gasification projects and the evidence shows there will be an acceleration of the development of infrastructure capacity, beyond even the rates seen in the last six months.”
