Lakeside Energy From Waste Celebrates Grand Opening

28 October 2010

The award-winning Lakeside Energy from Waste facility at Colnbrook, near Slough and Heathrow Terminal 5, was officially opened yesterday by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, who, along with other attendees, received a tour of the plant.

The joint venture, between Colnbrook-based Grundon Waste Management and Viridor, was said to be “based on family roots, ethics and customer focus. The plant exports enough energy recovered from residual – non-recyclable – household waste, to meet the domestic needs of around 50,000 householders, close to the population of Slough and was built by Itochu and main contractor Takuma.

The event was attended by His Excellency Shin Ebihara, the Japanese Ambassador, who gave a speech about the role of energy from waste in reducing global warming and said that the Uks management expertise and Japans technology formed a good relationship with global impact.

Doug Benjafield, Chairman of the Lakeside Board said: “Lakeside is a significant facility on the edge of London that recovers sustainable energy from up to 410,000 tonnes of residual waste. With the plant now operational, the opening event has enabled us to explain how we work with our customers to process that waste safely and provide green electricity into the National Grid.

“The Lakeside facility is an excellent example of how effective energy from waste facilities can be in generating much needed, base-load power for the National Grid, largely from non-fossil fuels. We are delighted that HRH The Duke of Edinburgh has shown such a keen interest in this modern technology at the opening of the plant. We were able to demonstrate to all our guests the importance of safely and efficiently harnessing energy from residual waste.”

Gemma Howard