Mayor overturns Merton refusal to allow development of new AD scheme

October 2011: Following Merton Council’s planning application refusal , the Mayor has today approved waste management firm Sita’s plans for an anaerobic digestion and material recycling facility in Mitcham.  Sita can now build an anaerobic digestion plant handling 40,000t of waste per year, down from the original scheme of 100,000t of waste. It will deliver between 1.1 and 1.7 megawatts of electricity, enough to power the site and export around 8 GWh (gigawatt hours) of electricity per year – equivalent to powering around 2,000 homes –  exporting  around 6.2 GWh of power to the grid per year.
The detailed planning report on the Sita application can be accessed via the Merton’s Planning Application’s Committee meeting of 8 September 2011.  The original energy statement for the development, an updated energy statement responding to queries raised by the GLA, and a district heating study for the immediate area around the anaerobic digestion plan in Merton are all available to download from the Merton’s planning website here [word search for ‘energy’ to quickly locate all three documents].
Some additional useful information is provided in articles at the Wimbledon Guardian and at letsrecycle.com