The UK’s increasing reliance on EfW plants                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Tolvik recently released their eighth annual Energy from Waste (EfW) report; providing a close and informative analysis of the EfW landscape for 2021.

This report, published on 5th May, makes for extremely interesting reading - particularly during this time when landfill tax is increasing, landfill gate fees are expected to rise, and the energy price cap rise has provided additional income for EfW plants.

However, this report, of course, does exclusively cover 2021 and it’s important to note that the UK energy market has been turned upside down in the first 5 months of this year (2022); particularly due to the war in Ukraine which has led to a significant rise in energy costs.

The unique circumstances of 2022 mean that - although Tolvik’s report is incredibly helpful and insightful in laying out the impact large-scale EfW plants have made on the UK energy market - said market has drastically and dramatically changed since the period analysed.

Processing of residual waste up 5.5%

The first stand out point made in Tolvik’s report states that a total of 53 EfW plants here in the UK processed 800,000 tonnes more residual waste in 2021 than in the previous year (2020) - a total of 14.85 million tonnes.

This is especially encouraging for the UK’s fleet of EfW plants and - more widely - the renewable energy sector as 2021 was, as we all know, intensely punctuated by the pandemic and associated lockdowns throughout the entire year; a year where so many industries struggled.

Of course, the pandemic and the country’s EfW plants’ resilience is something proudly referenced within this report.

EfW inputs made up over 50% of the market

What’s more, Tolvik’s report highlights the fact that EfW inputs made up 56% of the UK’s residual waste marketing, incorporating both domestic and commercial waste. This is up 4% on the previous year (52% in 2020).

And, looking at this through a 2022 lens - where energy prices & landfill tax have increased, and net zero becomes of increasing importance - it’s hard not to view this as an indicator that small scale, localised EfW plants are increasingly necessary; rising to the swelling demand for EfWs, particularly where large-scale (200,000 tonnes +) are so difficult to get through planning.

We’ve talked before about the future of EfW plants and our opinion that smaller scale, localised EfW plants are the future of this way of treating waste.

This is not only because they are easier to get through planning - residents are understandably less opposed to smaller plants and consequently less disturbance & obstruction! - as well as localised EfWs being beneficial to local communities, but also because they’re more willing to adopt and make use of new technologies.

All this and the undeniable fact that smaller scale EfW plants - around 100,000 tonnes - cost so much less to construct and then to run.

A rise in EfW usage means a fall in landfill reliance

Particularly interesting, though, is when this rise in residual waste treatment by EfWs in the UK is compared to that of landfills, where reliance on landfills has consistently fallen every year from near-90% in 2010 to just over 30% in 2021.

Again, due to the increase in landfill tax plus the expected exponential rise in landfill gate fees and the UK’s push for the reduction of carbon emissions, we can expect landfill use to further decrease throughout 2022.  

EfW’s rise in power

The rise in power exported from the UK’s 53 EfW plants to the National Grid in 2021 by 11% on the previous year (2020) further shows a significant improvement in the sector - particularly that of how much energy is processed from per tonne of waste.

Within this, Tolvik points out significant issues experienced by EfW plants in 2019 due to turbine issues which have clearly now been overcome.    

The changing energy landscape in 2022

In short, Tolvik’s 2021 EfW report shows the increasing value and reliance on Energy from Waste plants to treat the UK’s domestic and commercial waste which is incredibly important to highlighting EfWs place in the renewable energy industry.

But, reading it in 2022 also highlights the need for the UK to be self-reliant on the production of energy and not to be reliant on importing energy from other countries.

All of this means we are seeing the need for increasing gas production from Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plants, more treatment of waste and increased energy production; this, as well as the need for smaller, localised EfW plants of 100,000 tonnes or less; plants that are easier to build and beneficial to the [local] communities they serve.

Given the turbulence we’ve already seen in the first quarter of 2022, we will be extremely interested to see Tolvik’s next annual EfW report, anticipated in May 2023.