A REVOLUTIONARY green biomass burning plant could be built on the site of the Isle of Wight Council’s old Stag Lane rubbish tip, outside Newport.
The council’s cabinet on Tuesday considers three confidential rival offers for the redundant Stag Lane rubbish tip, which holds an estimated 600,000 cubic metres of buried waste.
The landfill site filled up and was closed in the late 1980s. One of the bids, which looks set to be rejected, proposes digging-up the material and burning it to produce power, while the third proposal, also recommended to be turned down, is for a research centre for renewable energy.
The South East England Development Agency has helped wind turbine blade developer Vestas Technology build its multi-million-pound research and development centre at the bottom of Stag Lane and that has created the possibility of finding a use for the old tip next door.
As part of aiding Vestas, the access road and its junction with Horsebridge Hill are being improved to cope with extra traffic. Residents fear a new use for the landfill site will add to the traffic, set to be generated by Vestas, but no detail is included in the public papers set to be considered by the cabinet.
Councillors are being recommended to enter into detailed negotiations with a so-far unidentified preferred bidder to build a large biomass heat and power generating plant.
It would burn biomass fuels grown on the Island, the British mainland and Europe and enable most material to be barged-in via the River Medina.
Estimates say the plant could produce as much as 50 megawatts of electricity — enough to provide power to 60,000 homes and easily allowing the Island to exceed its green energy targets.
Reporter: richardw@iwcpmail.co.uk