Media - Insider Article7 Oct 2021 14:07
Sustainable energy business SIMEC Atlantis Energy (SAE) has criticised a direction to transfer authority for the determination of its Uskmouth power station conversion project.
The business said it has been advised that the Welsh Government will now itself decide on the permit variation application for the conversion of the Uskmouth power station and has blocked the independent Natural Resources Wales (NRW) from making a determination.
According to SAE, NRW, which was leading the determination, had previously indicated that it was minded to award the variation to the existing permit, subject to conditions after a further round of public consultation, initially scheduled for September.
But following a "reported internal legal review" of this decision by NRW, SAE has been notified that NRW have been directed to refer the application to the Welsh Government.
SAE said the direction had been left to the very end of the NRW process and follows over a year of detailed information sharing between SAE and NRW, which included experts from across Wales, the UK, Europe, and Japan feeding in to demonstrate how the conversion meets all requirements set out by the relevant legislation.
In a statement, SAE said: "This further delay is a blow to South Wales and this vital green energy project at a time when the country is facing an energy crisis with intermittent renewables and a dependency on imported gas causing unsustainable price rises for homes and industries across the UK.
"The Welsh Government is putting at risk a project that will produce negative emissions, create hundreds of jobs in the Newport region, deliver hundreds of millions of pounds in investment and deliver the critical decarbonisation that industries in the region including steel and data centres require to make them sustainable.
"The conversion will be powered by fuel pellets that are derived from non-recyclable waste, destined for landfills and the oceans. A delay to this project will not reduce the production of this waste but instead result in the continued shipping of plastic waste to other countries for it to be burned or the digging of deeper holes in which it will be buried."
SAE added that it is seeking a variation to the permit sought to switch to a sustainable fuel source with significantly lower carbon emissions, and will utilise carbon capture and usage to sit alongside it to deliver negative emission electricity generation.
"SAE will consider all available legal options and will seek to ensure that the Welsh Government understands how critical this project is to South Wales, Newport, to key industries and the hundreds of employees whose jobs are at risk," the business added.
https://www.insidermedia.com/news/wales/simec-atlantis-energy-criticises-further-delay-on-conversion-decision