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.
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.