Kelda Organic Energy Ltd, a subsidiary of the Bradford-based Kelda Water Services Ltd, has signed an £89 million organic waste treatment contract to help the Welsh Government meet its 2050 “Zero Waste” target and supply renewable energy to Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water.

Working with Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan Councils, Kelda will design, build, finance and operate two state-of-the art recycling facilities.  Over the length of the 15 year contract, the facilities will recycle up to a million tonnes of kerbside collected food and garden waste.

An Anaerobic Digestion plant will be built at the water company’s Cardiff Wastewater Treatment Works to process 35,000 tonnes of discarded food waste collected by Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan Councils each year, together with an Open Windrow Composting plant to process 38,000 tonnes of garden waste collected annually by both councils. Construction will begin this summer with the aim of having both sites fully operational by early 2017.

The Anaerobic Digestion facility has been developed by Kelda working closely with Welsh Water. Located at Cardiff Wastewater Treatment Works, the renewable energy produced by the Anaerobic Digestion process is equivalent to powering approximately 4,000 homes.  This will be used by Welsh Water to offset their need to import energy from the grid.

Mike Pedley, Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water’s Head of Energy, said:

“This is the latest development in our ambitious programme to reduce our carbon footprint and reduce our reliance on Grid electricity. Furthermore, the project would also benefit customers by reducing our overall operating costs so that we can keep bills low and as affordable as possible.”