HILLS Waste wants to build a renewable energy centre near Westbury to turnhousehold rubbish and turn it into heat and electricity.

The centre, being put forward by Hills’ arm Northacre Renewable Energy, will be sited in three buildings up to 20 metres high on land between Hills Waste Solutions’ Northacre Resource Recovery Centre and Arla Foods Westbury Dairies at Stephenson Road. If it goes ahead the centre will create 40 new jobs as well as 80 construction jobs while it is being built.

It will treat converted rubbish from the next door recovery centre and also take in waste brought into the area by road via the A350 and B3097.

Northacre Renewable Energy director Mike Webster said: “This is an exciting opportunity to help meet local energy needs whilst managing local waste sustainably.”

The resource recovery centre turns Wiltshire’s household waste into a high calorific fuel called Solid Recovered Fuel. At present the SRF is transported by road to port and shipped to energy centres in Germany and Holland because there is not a local energy centre in Wiltshire.

The new centre will be capable of handling 160,000 tonnes of fuel, made up of SRF transferred from the plant next door by conveyor belt and blended with commercial and industrial waste destined for landfill brought in by lorry.

Mr Webster said: “We are creating a local circular economy. Wiltshire’s household waste is made into a SRF at Northacre RRC and together with commercial and industrial waste destined for landfill will supply the proposed Northacre Renewable Energy facility right next door which will in turn power local businesses.”

Hills says the plant will generate up to 22 megawatts of power with the potential to provide heat and power to other businesses on the Northacre Industrial Park;

The new centre will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. HGV deliveries to the site are expected to be between 7am and 10pm Monday to Friday and 7am to 5pm on Saturdays – over the equivalent of 304 days per year. Electricity and heat will be generated 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The centre will utilise an Advanced Thermal Treatment technology known as gasification. The gasification uses SRF and commercial and industrial waste materials destined for landfill that are converted into a synthetic gas which when combusted produces heat of up to 1,400 degrees Centigrade.

Hills says emissions from the new centre will be monitored by the Environment Agency to ensure it is complying with agreed limitsstipulated in its environmental permit. All exhaust gas from the process will be treated by air pollution control systems. A filter will remove particulates suspended in the gas. Dioxins, Furans and acid gases will be removed from the exhaust gases before they are expelled by a chimney stack. Hills is unable to say how high the stack will be yet.

A full environmental impact assessment addressing all emissions will be conducted as part of the planning application.

Noise and smell will be minimised through the building’s design together with landscaping to provide screening from nearby buildings and neighbours.

Northacre Renewable Energy will conduct eight weeks of pre-application consultation from this week until December 5.

A spokesman said: “We are keen to receive feedback on our proposal, which we will collate and use to shape and finalise our planning application. We aim to submit our planning application to Wiltshire Council before the end of the year. Subject to receiving planning consent, we hope to build and commission the facility in 2015/2016 with the facility fully operational in 2017.”

 There will be a public exhibition at Northacre Resource Recovery Centre lfrom 2pm to 8pm on November 4, where the plans will be explained in full and people will have a chance to comment.

Read more about the plan by clicking here.