THE huge waste incinerator that's being at a cost of £220 million between Ballingry and Kinglassie should be "fully operational" in just over a year.
Rubbish that can't be recycled will start to be delivered to the Westfield Energy Recovery Facility site in September and the plant should be completed at the end of April 2025.
More than 450 workers are currently on site and, once it's up and running, the site will burn 240,000 tonnes of waste a year and turn that into renewable heat and power.
It will also create 40 full-time jobs.
Sean McManus, deputy project manager at Westfield ERF, explained: “The buildings’ cladding is well progressed along with the boiler and turbine hall roofs.
"We are still on track for commercial operations takeover by the contractor HZI at the end of April 2025.
"Siemens is onsite completing construction of the steam turbine and generator package and fit out of the admin building is progressing well with the offices taking shape, ready for occupation in October.
"We have had an excellent start to the year with a stellar safety performance by the main contractors.
"We aim to continue this through to completion and are running behavioural safety campaigns over the next few months.”
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The project is also helping the local economy by using local workers and the supply chain in the Kingdom with the weighbridges being manufactured by Precia-Molen UK Ltd in Dunfermline.
Their managing director, Marina Campbell, said: “The HZI Westfield has indeed been a project that the whole team in Fife has been involved in and has been a delight to deliver.
"Tendered by our national regional manager, it was managed through the local team and will be installed by our engineers who live in Fife.”
Rubbish that can't be recycled and would normally go to landfill will go to the plant, where the process of burning 240,000 tonnes of waste will produce electricity for the national grid and steam, which will be used to heat 55,000 homes and businesses.
With the ban on sending waste to landfill coming ever closer, alternative options are needed and Fife Council already have a deal in place to send 160,000 tonnes of waste to Westfield.
Planning permission was granted in February 2019 to Brockwell Energy and the 200,000 tonne energy-from-waste plant is being built by Swiss contractors Hitachi Zosen Inova (HZI) on a former opencast coal mine.
Work began in February 2022 but in September of that year Brockwell sold the development to Equitix.
The international infrastructure investor entered into a joint venture with renewable energy and waste management company, Viridor, who already run an energy-from-waste site at Dunbar as well as sites in England and Wales.
Brockwell are still involved, providing client construction management services.
As well as incinerating rubbish, Westfield will recycle metals and nearly 50,000 tonnes of aggregates, replacing quarried materials.
The plant was scheduled to be up and running in 2024 but it's now set to be fully operational in May 2025.
Formerly a coal mine, production ceased at Westfield in 1998 and Scottish Coal sold the derelict land to Hargreaves in 2013.
They have a masterplan for the whole site, the ERF is just a small part of the green energy park, which is being redeveloped for industrial and commercial use.
Working with Fife Council and local communities, Hargreaves aim to deliver a site-wide restoration scheme and pave the way for a major regeneration of the area, creating more jobs and employment opportunities.
Brockwell is a subsidiary of Hargreaves.
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