South East London Combined Heat and Power, better known as SELCHP, is a major

energy from waste Waste-to-energy (WtE) or energy-from-waste (EfW) is the process of generating energy in the form of electricity and/or heat from the primary treatment of waste, or the processing of waste into a fuel source. WtE is a form of energy recovery. Mo ...

incineration plant in

South Bermondsey South Bermondsey is a ward in the London Borough of Southwark created in 2010 out of Burgess Ward in southeast London, England. The area is served by South Bermondsey railway station, with a future station at Surrey Canal Road. Nearby neighbor ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. It was designed to generate both heat and electricity. The plant can generate up to 35 MegaWatts of power using a steam turbine in electricity only mode. It can incinerate up to 420,000 tonnes per year of

municipal solid waste Municipal solid waste (MSW), commonly known as trash or garbage in the United States and rubbish in Britain, is a waste type consisting of everyday items that are discarded by the public. "Garbage" can also refer specifically to food waste, ...

History

In 1986, faced with the increasing scarcity and the environmental problems of

landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...

, the local authorities of

Lewisham Lewisham () is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified i ...

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

, and Greenwich came together to identify an alternative. In 1988, they formed an organisation - the South East London Combined Heat and Power Consortium - from which SELCHP now takes its name. The plans were taken forward by several Councillors, notably David Sullivan and Angela Cornforth of Lewisham and Len Duvall of Greenwich. A Lewisham Officer, Richard Siggers, was appointed as the first Project Manager. SELCHP was eventually established as a Limited Company in 1991, with the original shareholders being the London boroughs of Greenwich and Lewisham (Southwark did not invest), AHS Emstar (now Veolia), Martin Engineering Systems, John Laing, London Electricity and Mainmet. SELCHP Limited's first Chairman was Professor Gerald Atkins and its first Managing Director was Robert Wheatley. The two main shareholders (Martin Engineering Systems Limited and AHS Emstar) went on to obtain funding of £95 million and underwrote the construction of this first environmentally compliant (with EU regulations) Energy from Waste facility in Britain. Planning Permission for the development was obtained after a long public consultation phase which has been labeled a model of local public involvement. The SELCHP Facility was opened in November 1994 by the Prince of Wales. Originally, the Plant extracted energy from all of the post-recycling waste of Lewisham and Greenwich, and it now processes waste from several other London Boroughs as well. In 2015, more than 40 of these plants now operate in the British Isles. In 2002 SELCHP was subject to

direct action Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to oth ...

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...

UK. They were concerned about the potential negative health effects of the

dioxins Dioxin may refer to: * 1,2-Dioxin or 1,4-Dioxin, two unsaturated heterocyclic 6-membered rings where two carbon atoms have been replaced by oxygen atoms, giving the molecular formula C4H4O2 *Dibenzo-1,4-dioxin, the parent compound also known as ...

produced during the incineration of waste at the site. The plant was shut down for three and a half days when protesters entered the main tipping hall and climbed the chimney. The standoff was resolved when bailiffs entered the building and removed the protestors. As a result of the action both Liberal Democrats on

Lewisham Council Lewisham London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Lewisham in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. The council is unusual in that its executi ...

and the Shadow Environment Secretary

Peter Ainsworth Peter Michael Ainsworth (16 November 1956 – 6 April 2021) was a British Conservative politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for East Surrey from 1992 to 2010. Following his retirement from politics, Ainsworth was appointed UK ch ...

pledged their support to the campaign. Records of emissions are publicly available, as is the case with all similar Energy from Waste Plants. SELCHP is currently operated by

Veolia Environmental Services Veolia Environmental Services (in French Veolia Propreté), formerly Onyx Environnement, is a division of Veolia Environnement. It employs nearly 78,000 staff, has operations in 35 countries around the world, and generated revenues of nearly € ...

References

External links

SELCHPInformation PageSELCHP location
{{Incineration in the United Kingdom Energy infrastructure completed in 1994 Waste power stations in England Power stations in London Waste management in London Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Lewisham Cogeneration power stations in England

History

See also

References

External links