Sita signs deal to turn waste into electricity
WASTE management company Sita UK yesterday said that it has signed a 25-year contract with the West London Waste Authority to turn household rubbish into energy.
Along with its consortium partners Scottish Widows Investment Partners and Japan’s Itochu Corporation, Sita will design, finance, build and operate infrastructure to manage up to 300,000 tonnes of waste every year.
While the contract is valued at £760m, it is worth £1.4bn for Sita, as the firm will make money from selling the energy produced.
Under the agreement, residual waste that the 1.6m people living in the London boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond-upon-Thames have not been able to recycle will be transported to a new power generation plant in Gloucestershire, converted into electricity and sold.
The deal will enable the West London Waste Authority to divert 96 per cent of its waste from landfill and is expected to save 2m tonnes of CO2.
The scheme has debt financing from the government’s Green Investment Bank, Credit Agricole and three Japanese banks.