Heat from waste incinerator could be used to grow tomatoes
Added on 03 August 2023
The company behind the potential plans - Oasthouse Ventures – already heat two massive greenhouses together spanning 70 acres in Bury St Edmunds and Norwich using heat pumps with waste sewage water from local treatment works to grow peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers.
Early drawings plans for Rivenhall show two banks of greenhouses sitting on either side of the main incinerator development stretching considerable lengths. At the time of publication, no planning applications have been submitted for the plans. But those ideas come amid Essex County Council agreeing that the Indaver no longer has to comply with a condition that the entire project - originally envisaged with a paper pulping plant - has to be built out in full.
It was originally stipulated under condition 66 that the IWMF operation must include a combined heat and power (CHP) plant, a paper pulping plant, and an anaerobic digestion facility to treat food and green waste thereby generating biogas for the production of electricity on-site. A materials recycling facility and a mechanical biological treatment facility must also be delivered and operational by December 31, 2026.
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