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Dublin City Council issues Letter of Intent to build Dublin Waste to Energy plant
At the end of June 2007, Dublin City Council issued a Letter of Intent to Dublin Waste to Energy Ltd (a joint venture between Covanta Energy, USA, a subsidiary of Covanta Holding Corporation and Dong Energy Generation, Denmark) confirming Dublin City Council's intention to enter into a contract with the company, on terms agreed, to design, build, finance and operate the proposed Dublin Waste to Energy plant at the Poolbeg Peninsula.
The proposed facility will cater for approximately 600,000 tonnes of household and commercial waste from the Dublin Region. This will consist of waste which is left over after segregation for recycling has taken place. Once the waste is burned in the incinerator it will produce electricity and heat, which will be fed into the national grid. The burning of 600,000 tonnes of waste will produce enough electricity to service approximately 50,000 homes.
There are three things required by law, that must be undertaken before construction on the plant can begin. These are:
- Application for planning approval to An Bord Pleanála to build the plant
- Application to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a licence to operate the plant
- Application to the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) for a licence to generate and supply electricity
All three of these statutory processes must be completed and approved before construction of the proposed incinerator can begin.
The application for planning approval to An Bord Pleanala and for a licence to the EPA have now been submitted. Both of these applications required the production of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). An EIS is the end product of a process, which examines the potential environmental consequences of a development, before the development takes place and identifies possible mitigation measures that can be implemented to offset any potential negative environmental consequences. The applications and the accompanying EIS are available for members of the public to view and make submissions on to either An Bord Pleanala or the EPA.
Download the non-technical summary of the EIS (695 Kb)
Download Waste License Application
Download the full EIS (Note: this file is 180 MB, on a standard dial-up Internet connection it will take approx. 7 hours to download).
EIS Part Download: