Greatmoor Energy from Waste, Buckinghamshire

RPS provided detailed design services for a new Energy from Waste (EfW) facility in Buckinghamshire.

The single stream EfW facility, adjacent to an existing landfill site, processes circa 300,000 tonnes per annum of household refuse. The plant also has a separate IBA ash operation, linked by a high-level conveyor and a visitor centre.

The facility provides Buckinghamshire County Council with a long-term solution for the management of residual municipal waste produced in the county. Due to operate for at least 30 years, it will deliver at least £150million in savings. Crucially it stops more than 100,000 tonnes of waste ending up in landfill each year in Buckinghamshire

Key details

Project name
Greatmoor Energy from Waste

Client
FCC Environmental & Sir Robert McAlpine

Location
Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire

Services provided

  • Architecture
  • Technical advisor
  • Principal designer

Challenge

Consideration must be given to the design of the proposed built development, most notably the proposed main EfW building is a very large industrial type building which was potentially visible from many viewpoints.

The design of any such building must inevitably be in part driven by the space required to accommodate the processes within it and this presents challenges in terms of landscape setting within a landscape of wooded rolling lowlands and an acknowledgment in design of the buildings purpose.

Buckinghamshire Efw - Project image_Websize.png

Solution

Our architects designed the curved exterior of the building to complement the surrounding countryside landscape. Visual impact was reduced through colour banding of the building’s elevations and use of a muted palette of green tones to reduce the perceived mass of the facility when viewed from a distance. The main consideration was to try to reduce the overall bulk of the EfW building.

We worked with process engineers to carefully integrate the processing equipment into the building’s envelope and maximise the efficiency of the material flow around the site. The facility has an 8m high level tipping hall, accessed externally by a vehicle ramp on top of a landscaped mound which was designed to minimise the time and associated costs of removing materials excavated for the building’s foundations.

Waste is supplied via road laid upon the route of a disused railway line thus taking advantage of an established landscape feature.

Project statistics

300,000 tonnes
per annum of household refuse
23 MW
capacity to deliver 23 megawatts of electricity
40,000
ough to power up to 40,000 homes
£150million
set to deliver £150million in cost savings over its lifetime
100,000 tonnes
saved from landfill each year in

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