Viridor Peterborough Ltd., a subsidiary of the U.K.-based solid waste firm Pennon Group, has signed a public private partnership (PPP) contract with the Peterborough, U.K. City Council to handle the council's residual waste over the next 30 years.

The contract requires the development of an energy-from-waste (EfW) facility at the council's existing recycling site. The facility will have a capacity to process up to 85,000 metric tons of residual waste per year. The system will be designed to achieve a 94 percent landfill diversion rate and will have a net electrical power generation capacity of 7.25MW.

Peterborough currently produces about 90,000 metric tons of waste per year, which is set to increase to 140,000 metric tons by 2040. Of the material collected, about 43 percent of the material is currently recycled. With the addition of the EfW facility the council expects to sharply increase the diversion rate.

The project is expected to cost around £75 million (US$116.4 million) and the plant will be built by a joint venture between Babcock & Wilcox Volund and Interserve Construction as the engineering and procurement contractor to Viridor. Capital funding for the project will be provided by PCC via its prudential borrowing facilities.

Viridor's stated strategy involves the fulfillment of long-term service contracts, and the construction and operation of recycling plants and of plants generating energy from the residual waste which cannot be recycled.

In a statement, Viridor’s Chief Executive Colin Drummond said, "We are delighted to have signed this contract with Peterborough City Council. The project represents a further major step in the development of Viridor's PPP/EfW pipeline."