About the project – Tees Valley Energy Recovery Facility

About the project

What is the role of the Tees Valley Energy Recovery Facility (TV ERF)?

The TV ERF is a critical and essential piece of infrastructure for the North-East that will provide a local, secure, reliable and affordable solution for treating “residual” waste (the rubbish left over after recycling) produced by more than 1.5 million people living and working across the North-East from 2026 onwards – helping move closer towards the goal of sending zero waste to landfill.

What type of facility is it?

The TV ERF is an energy-from-waste plant which uses the general rubbish left over after recycling as a fuel to produce heat and electrical energy. This puts the waste to best use and avoids sending it to landfill, which is the alternative solution.

There are currently around 60 similar energy-from-waste plants in operation or construction around the United Kingdom and these facilities have a proven track record for being a safe and sustainable way of treating the nation’s general rubbish. In fact, similar plants have already been operating successfully in the North-East for decades now.

Once built, from 2026 onwards, the TV ERF will process up to 450,000 tonnes of general rubbish produced across the North-East each year and use it to generate up to 49.9MW of electricity – enough to power the equivalent of 60,000 homes. The plant is also capable of exporting the heat it produces to district-heating networks and could become a low or zero-carbon source of heat and power for new neighbouring businesses. Find out how the TV ERF turns rubbish into energy

Where is it located?

The facility will be located at the Teesworks site in Redcar on the former British Steel works. The TV ERF will play a role in supporting plans to regenerate this site and attract other new businesses, while creating hundreds of jobs during the construction period and approximately 40 permanent positions once operational.

This site is already allocated for waste management infrastructure in the local development plan and has excellent connections to both the National Grid and the local road network.

This location also offers potential for the TV ERF to export heat, as well as electricity, to future nearby users. In the longer term, the TV ERF is also ideally located to connect to carbon capture and storage infrastructure as part of the East Coast Cluster.

Who will build and operate the TV ERF?

The project partners, led by Hartlepool Borough Council, are currently undertaking a two-stage competitive dialogue tender process to find an experienced organisation to design, build, finance and operate the TV ERF. This process is overseen by a governance board representing all seven partner councils.

Three bidders were shortlisted and Final Tenders were submitted by Viridor and Green Recovery Projects Ltd in March 2023. The project partners have agreed to temporarily pause the evaluation of these tenders, and the appointment of a Preferred Tenderer, owing to uncertainty around electricity offtake for the plant, which has a substantial bearing on the procurement process. More information about this can be found in our updated FAQ document.

The project partners are committed to keeping local residents and stakeholders informed as the project progresses and, once a Preferred Tendered has been selected, we will make an announcement.