Peel gains consent for N Selby AD/glasshouse project

City of York Council has recently cleared Peel Environmental’s plans for an anaerobic digestion (AD) and horticultural glasshouse Facility on the former North Selby Mine site, New Road, Wheldrake.

The scheme represents an investment of £23.5 million into the area – comprising around £17.5 million for the AD plant and £6 million for the glasshouse.

It will recover heat and electricity from up to 60,000 tonnes of organic waste per year, generating renewable electricity to power around 3500 homes.

A horticultural glasshouse, which will use some of the heat produced, will be developed alongside the facility and operated by Howden-based firm Plant Raisers to propagate mainly tomato plants.

“The facility will provide an economic boost to the area, providing up to 256 jobs during construction and 56 full time positions and 50 seasonal positions during operation, with the impact of these in the region of £2.2million gross value added per year," said Richard Barker, development manager, Peel Environmental.

The £23.5 million project will use AD to treat organic commercial and industrial waste and produce 1.5MW of heat and up to 2.75MW of electricity. The North Selby unit will also produce up to 30,000 tonnes of digestate each year which could be used by local farmers as a bio-fertiliser.

Electricity produced by the AD facility will be used by the glasshouse and exported to the National Grid via the existing on site connection.

The North Selby site is located on New Road, between the villages of Wheldrake and Escrick.

The council’s planning committee approved plans for the facility by nine votes to six on 25 April.