Video: Derry waste can be turned into energy at Bombardier facility and sent back up the grid to power business, says Cecil McBurney of River Ridge

Waste-derived-fuel from Derry can be turned into electricity in Belfast and sent back up the grid to power businesses in Derry.
Waste-to-fuelWaste-to-fuel
Waste-to-fuel

Waste-derived-fuel from Derry can be turned into electricity in Belfast and sent back up the grid to power businesses in Derry.

That was the ambition outlined by waste firm River Ridge’s Corporate Operations Officer Cecil McBurney at a Chamber of Commerce/SONI energy event in Derry this week.

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Mr. McBurney said its £107m ‘full circle generation’ plant at Belfast harbour built to provide Bombardier with a reliable source of energy could soon be sending surplus power up to Derry.

“Where the whole tie-up in this sort of thing for powering business in the North West comes from is that we now take waste from the North West, along with other parts of Northern Ireland. We process it through our waste treatment facilities.

“We produce the fuel. We take it to the first energy-from-waste facility in Belfast. We create power.

“Some of that power goes back onto the grid and has the potential - electrons go wherever they need to go - but it has the potential through the grid to make its way back to power businesses in the North West.”

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Video: Jo Aston of SONI and Brian McGrath of Derry Chamber outline the urgent need for a green energy revolutionMr. McBurney said this would equate to a circular economy. Businesses in Derry would create byproduct that after being sorted at River Ridge material recoveries facilities could be turned into electricity to power that same industry.