Shanks and McEwan awarded Ruston a contract for a turnkey project to design and build a 12 MWe power plant, located at a large landfill site at Stewartby, to supply Eastern Electricity.
Shanks and McEwan are the UK’s largest independent waste management company, and operate a number of landfill sites.
The site which had been allocated for the project was formerly a brick-paved storage and handling area for the London Brick Company. Early site geological investigations revealed that there was a clay sub-strata with several areas of brick backfill, which is ideal for a landfill operation.
The close proximity to a residential area dictated that consideration be given to noise limitation. This was achieved using an internal structure of high density concrete block with highly acoustic attenuated ventilation, exhaust and radiator equipment.
The project was designed for unmanned operation. As a result, special consideration was given to the system to automatically dial out by a telephone in the event of an alarm being raised.