Frequently Asked Questions

A Resource Park is the gateway between sustainable waste management, generation of renewable energy and economically sustainable jobs for the local community. The principle is that waste materials arrive on site and only useful products leave, either in the form of material for recycling or as heat and electricity.

The Resource Park at Sheepbridge will take in waste materials from local commerce and industry to either recycle or generate heat and electricity for use locally. Waste materials that have not been subject to any sorting will be put through the Materials Recycling Facility where useful recyclate can be sorted and sent for reprocessing at paper mills, plastic factories, etc. Waste that has already been sorted will go to the Energy Recovery Building where electricity and hot water will be generated using a process called Gasification.

For more details see the 'How it works' section of the website.

There are a number of features that are required when considering the location of a Resource Park. The site should preferably have an industrial setting, the development needs to be close to its market, the site needs to be located in an area where there is an available skilled workforce and the location needs to comply with planning policy. Each of those points is looked at further below.

• Industrial setting

The Sheepbridge Resource Park is proposed to be developed at the Cammac Coal Yard located off Dunston Road which is part of Sheepbridge Industrial Estate and is currently used for outside heavy plant storage. The yard has a history as a coal washery and of open cast mining. The land is also immediately adjacent to an old landfill.

• Close to its Market

The Proximity Principle is a key factor in deciding on a site for a Resource Park. Locating a Resource Park close to where the raw materials will come from stops waste being transferred large distances and cuts greenhouse gases from transportation. Chesterfield is the largest urban settlement within Derbyshire (Derby being a Unitary Authority) and as such it produces significant waste streams from the businesses which serve this population.

• Available Skilled Workforce

Chesterfield Borough has the highest population and greatest employment base of any district in Derbyshire. However, the historical decline of primary and manufacturing/engineering jobs has led to higher than average unemployment. Sheepbridge Resource Park will need employees that reflect the full spectrum of employment with over 50% of the jobs of NVQ Level 2 standard. The jobs from Phase 1 will include engineers, technicians and operations management staff. A key reason for selecting Sheepbridge for the development of a Resource Park is the availability of the workforce and the history of manufacturing & engineering in the locality.

• Compliance with Planning Policy

A thorough review of current and impending planning policies for the region was undertaken when looking at the Sheepbridge site. Two significant points are worth noting.

First, in the ‘Waste Sites Allocation Development Plan Document’ prepared by Derbyshire County and Derby City Council, the Sheepbridge site has been identified as being suitable for proposals which include energy recovery and resource park development.

Secondly, there is a need in Derbyshire for providing renewable electricity. In fact Derbyshire need to install another 107GWh of renewable electricity production by 2010 and the Sheepbridge Resource Park would provide 28GWh of this, satisfying 26% of the remaining renewables target.

Bearing the above points in mind, it was decided to go ahead with the Planning Application on the site for a Resource Park.

For more details see ‘Why Sheepbridge’ section of the website.

Phase 1 of the development will see the Material Recycling Facility and the Energy Recovery Building constructed bringing a total of 41 jobs and over £1M of wages into the local economy. Jobs will range from administrative staff, MRF operatives, energy plant engineers and site managers.

As soon as Phase 1 is commissioned, Phase 2 – The Sustainable Employment Park, will be built. The plan for this area is at outline stage currently as to maximise the benefit to the local economy engagement will be necessary from Chesterfield Borough Council and the Development Agency. However, a key feature of Phase 2 will be the supply of green power, heating and cooling derived from the Energy Recovery Building. It is anticipated that at least 60 additional jobs from circa 60,000 square feet of industrial units will be created.

The Sheepbridge Resource Park will be open for deliveries of waste and recyclate from 7am to 5pm in the week and 7am to 1pm on a Saturday. There will be no deliveries on Sundays and Bank Holidays.

The MRF will operate from 7am to 10pm in the week and 7am to 1pm on Saturdays. The MRF will not operate on Sundays or Bank Holidays.

The Energy Recovery Building will operate 24 hours a day to ensure a continuous supply of electricity to the local distribution network.

Deliveries will only be allowed between 7am and 5pm in the week and 7am and 1pm at weekends – standard industry working hours. It is anticipated that there will be less than 30 trucks per day averaging out at around 3 per hour.

All recycling and energy activities at the Sheepbridge Resource Park will take place inside the buildings. A noise assessment has been carried out that covers the nearest properties by our consultants and it found that the noise from the Resource Park would actually be less than the current background noise levels and, therefore, would not be heard at these properties.

All environmental impacts will be governed by the Environmental Permit that will be issued by the Environment Agency once they are satisfied that the Resource Park will comply with all relevant legislation and limits. Without this Environmental Permit the Resource Park cannot operate.

a. Air

Emissions to air are controlled by the EU Waste Incineration Directive that sets limits on 6 constituent parts of the flue gas from the process. These controls are the strictest of any power plants in the UK and are between 2 and 4 times tighter than a biomass power plant.

b. Water

There will be two distinct water flows on site – dirty water from washing down, etc. will go to foul sewer while rainwater will be collected from the car park and building roofs and held in a sub-surface storage lagoon to give a steady flow into the drains to help stop any potential local flooding in heavy rainstorms.

The Sheepbridge Resource Park will be sympathetic to the surroundings. The buildings will be green to blend with the surrounding scenery and extra trees will be planted so as to screen the development. See the fly-through animation and the photo montages for further information in the How it Looks section.

The site for the Resource Park was chosen due to its industrial heritage and the local industrial area surrounding it. The Resource Park will be painted in shades of green to merge and blend better than the industrial units in place at the moment with their grey roofs and often colourful facades.

A comprehensive visual assessment has been carried out to assess the Resource Park’s influence on the surrounding landscape and where the site might be seen from. To help with understanding of this and compare views with where you live please see the photo montages in the How it Looks section.

There will be a flue and it will be 21 metres high, about 5 metres above the roof line of the buildings. The flue will be coloured green to blend with the buildings and the background tree cover on the development. The flue will be for the controlled emission of the cleaned exhaust from the electricity generating equipment.

The Sheepbridge Resource Park will produce 7MWh of electricity – 56GWh per annum. This is enough to power more than 16,000 homes which is 38% of the homes in the Chesterfield Borough.

The electricity will be connected to the local distribution network and will be used by local businesses and households. It will not need to go on the National Grid as there are enough users on the local network that can benefit from the renewable electricity.

The Renewables Obligation Order 2006 specifically includes Advanced Conversion Technologies as a renewable source of electricity generation. Advanced Conversion Technologies include gasification, pyrolysis and anaerobic digestion.

As of 1st April 2009 the use of waste to generate electricity using an Advanced Conversion Technology will count as 50% renewable energy. Ofgem (Electricity & Gas markets regulator) have ‘deemed’ that the biomass portion (considered renewable) of the waste would make up 50% of the calorific value of the syngas used as the fuel to generate electricity. In 2013 the percentage of renewable energy generated by gasifying waste rises to 60% and then 65% in 2018.

The Sheepbridge Resource Park will have an electricity generation rating of 7 MW, which is equivalent to 56 GWh per annum assuming a 91% capacity factor (uptime). However, the ‘deeming’ factor from Ofgem of 50% needs to be taken into account to give us the total renewable electricity generation giving a net renewable electricity production from the Resource Park of 28 GWh per annum. Therefore, the Sheepbridge Resource Park will satisfy circa 26% of the net remaining target (12.5% of the total target) for renewable electricity generation in Derbyshire. This will be the highest rated supplier of renewable electricity in Derbyshire based on the 2006 information.

In 2013 the quantity of renewable electricity generated at the Sheepbridge Resource Park will rise to 33.6 GWh per annum and then 36.4 GWh per annum in 2018.

The Sheepbridge Resource Park will sort and recycle good quality recyclate using the Materials Recycling Facility. Furthermore, the energy recovery facility is flexible enough to be able to use alternative materials (e.g. biomass) to generate electricity so will not be reliant on waste feedstock that could include valuable recyclable materials.

The Sheepbridge Resource Park uses the Waste Hierarchy principles to avoid undermining any preferred method of dealing with waste and more than 60% of the waste that goes through the MRF will be sorted and recycled where previously it would have been landfilled.

Gasification is a process that can take non-inert materials such as wood, plastics and food – basically, anything that will rot down – and converts the solid material to a gas that can be used in the same way as gas in the home for heating and hot water. Gasification has been used since the late 1800s for the production of town gas for street lighting and cooking in the home, so this is a tried and tested process over many, many years.

Gasification is a highly efficient process whereby virtually all the energy in the material being gasified is released into the gas and, therefore, a very efficient method of generating steam and electricity from waste materials. Waste types accepted for energy generation will be along the lines of packaging that is too contaminated for recycling, treated wood wastes, damaged and/or out of date food from supermarkets and other wastes that are too low in value to recycle.

While gasification and incineration are both thermal processes, it’s important to point out the differences and the benefits of gasification.

Incineration is simply mass burn with relatively inefficient recovery of energy from the waste. The waste itself is the fuel in incineration. There is often in excess of 10 or 15% of the waste material left after going through the incineration process.

Gasification is a controlled sub-stoichiometric process that is used to turn waste materials into a gas. The gas is then used as a fuel to generate heat and power and because of this it is a far cleaner and efficient technology. In Germany they pump the gas from Advanced Conversion Technologies into their gas mains for use by households and industry. The gas from gasification can be used as a commodity in its own right, the waste is merely the resource to provide the gas.

The Resource Park will sort waste streams in the MRF that have not already been pre-treated rather than put them straight to the Energy Recovery Building. The recyclate that is removed from the residual waste stream for reprocessing back into new products would usually have been landfilled, so the Resource Park will maximise recycling from waste that would have been landfilled otherwise. Only non-recyclable or no value residual waste will be used in the Energy Recovery Building.

Composting has its place in managing waste, however, there is very little in commercial and industrial waste that would be compostable and what there is would be mixed in with all sorts of other materials making the end compost product too contaminated to be of any value. In addition, composting converts about 65% of the organic matter to CO2 with another 27% being released over 100 years if the compost is spread on land giving a 92% conversion to CO2. Furthermore, if compost is not turned to maintain its aerobic nature, significant quantities of methane would be generated which is 21 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2. So, comparing compost with energy recovery is not as straightforward as it may first seem.

One of the pre-requisites for the technology chosen at the Sheepbridge Resource Park was flexibility. With waste targets and legislation pushing waste management ever further up the waste hierarchy, we could be in the situation where suitable waste for the gasification plant is just not around anymore due to better design and recycling. The flexibility of the gasification system that will be used is that the plant can be turned over to gasify forestry waste and other biomass to generate electricity, so the Resource Park will still be able to run and provide renewable heat and power. However, this will take time and so for the foreseeable future the Resource Park will provide two services – one to managing waste locally and one to provide renewable and low carbon heat and power for the local area.

Prior to submission of the Planning Application we submitted a Scoping Document to the County Council to ask what type of information we would need to cover and include in a Planning Application. This Scoping Document was then sent out to other groups asking for their input. The following stakeholders were consulted at this early stage –

• Chesterfield Borough Council
• Planning Authority
• Highways Authority
• Environmental Health Authority
• Environment Agency
• Derbyshire Wildlife Trust

Other stakeholder groups were also contacted at the time the Planning Application was submitted such as Borough and County Councillors, local community forums, local wildlife groups, neighbours to the site and the local media.

With such widespread use of the internet we have also decided to publish this web-site so that as many people as possible can access information on the proposal. By reading this web-site you are also being consulted and if you have any questions or you just want to stay informed then feel free to e-mail us using the form on the 'Contact Us' page or use the 'Stay Informed' box at the top of the page to enter your e-mail address for further updates.

We have committed to taking on board any constructive views and will take these on board and amend the proposal wherever possible.

Now that the Planning Application has been submitted to the County Council they will have to advertise in the local press that they have received it. There will then be a minimum 16 week period for the relevant stakeholders and the general public to pass any comments or recommendations if they want to. Also during this time the Council may ask for additional information from us covering the Application.

During this time period there will be 3 exhibition days for anyone to come along and see the site as it is now and ask questions about the proposal. The dates for these exhibitions are the 19th August, 18th & 24th September.