UK green investment bank commits £47m to Belfast energy from waste plant

UK Green Investment Bank (GIB), owned by the British Government, has committed £47m to Northern Ireland’s new Belfast energy from waste plant (EfW).

The £107m Belfast EfW plant will be located near aeroplane company Bombardier’s facility in the harbour estate in the east of the city.

The new plant expects to cut Bombardier’s energy bill by a quarter.

It is expected to be completed by 2017.

The plant is capable to generate 14.85 mw energy and will be operated by Full Circle Generation along with RiverRidge Energy, Equitix and P3P Partners.

The project has been developed by RiverRidge Energy and Bouygues Energies and Services is working as a design-build-operate contractor.

UK Green Investment Bank chief executive Shaun Kingsbury said: "The plant will generate cleaner, greener electricity that can be used to the benefit of local employers while helping local authorities and businesses meet waste reduction targets."

With £3.8bn of funding, the UK Government established the UK Green Investment Bank in 2012.

The facility is considered to be the largest project of its kind in Northern Ireland and once completed it will supply power to nearly 14,500 homes.

It also aims to create around 250 construction and around 20 operations jobs.

RiverRidge Energy Limited and RiverRidge Recycling managing director Brett Ross said: "The delivery of this critical piece of infrastructure provides a number of stakeholders with a world-class facility capable of recovering energy from waste in an environmentally sensitive and acceptable manner as well as the provision of a meaningful base load of renewable energy for Bombardier."