"Diverting up to 350,000 tonnes of residual, non-recyclable waste away from landfill each year and generating enough electricity to power the equivalent of up to 70,000 homes"

Diverting up to 350,000 tonnes of residual, non-recyclable waste away from landfill each year and generating enough electricity to power up to 90,000 homes

About South Clyde Energy Centre

South Clyde Energy Centre from diagonal entrance view
South Clyde Energy Centre from diagonal entrance view

The South Clyde Energy Centre is an Energy-from-Waste Facility (EfW) under construction and jointly owned by Fortum and Macquarie Asset Management's Green Investment Group, in Glasgow, Scotland.

The facility will enter commercial operations by the end of 2026.

The South Clyde Energy Centre will generate energy from non-hazardous domestic and commercial waste left over from the recycling process.

Key benefits:

  • Renewable

    Generating up to 45 Mwe gross of lower carbon electricity - enough to power the equivalent of around 70,000 homes.¹

  • Energy Production

    Creating Scottish energy resilience by generating power straight into the grid.

  • Recycled materials

    Preventing approximately 350,000 tonnes of residual waste going to landfill or being exported outside of the UK each year.

  • Meeting demand

    Once operational, creating around 40 permanent jobs on site for operations and maintenance and while in construction supporting approximately 500 construction jobs, in addition to supply chain opportunities for local businesses.

Concept - State of the Art Technology

The South Clyde Energy Centre is being built with state of the art technology. The plant generates energy by using non-recyclable waste as fuel. The combustion process and flue gas cleaning technology is designed to remove harmful emissions to the highest internationally accepted standards. The potential to add carbon capture technology in the future would allow carbon dioxide to be captured and stored or turned into new materials, reducing greenhouse gas emissions to close to zero.

Key Technical Insights:

  • Designed to treat various waste streams: Municipal solid waste as well as industrial and commercial waste, and refuse derived fuels

  • Once operational the site can treat waste 24/7

  • Designed to fulfill environmental and industrial emission standards

  • Energy efficiency and maximal electricity production is ensured with a powerful steam turbine plant that include an Air Cooled Condenser (ACC)

  • Potential for future heat offtake so that site can be connected to local district heating

Benefits of the South Clyde Energy Centre

The South Clyde Energy Centre helps ensure that waste is appropriately managed and treated. The project is expected to play a critical role in delivering the Scottish Government's landfill ban, which comes into effect in 2025.

Compared to landfilling, South Clyde Energy Centre is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 67 kt CO2e per year.¹

Once operational, South Clyde Energy Centre will generate up to 45 MWe gross of electricity by processing up to 350,000 tonnes of residual waste each year, equivalent to the waste arising from around 380,000 households.¹

The plant will generate reliable and valuable baseload electricity. It will also be enabled for heat offtake so it has the potential to provide heat to local businesses or district heating systems.

South Clyde Energy Centre also has scope to be retrofitted with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology in the future, aligning it with the requirements of the Scottish Government's Climate Change Plan. Moreover, the CCS technology could be developed further, towards Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) so that the site's emissions from waste incineration are captured and used to make new materials, like high-quality plastics.

Once operational, the South Clyde Energy Centre will create around 40 permanent on-site jobs, in addition to supply chain opportunities for local businesses. While in construction, the project will support approximately 500 construction jobs over the lifetime of the project build.

¹Internal GIG Analysis as at July 2022.

Background

Who is building the site?

South Clyde Energy Centre is being built by Fortum Glasgow limited, a partnership between Fortum Oyj and Macquarie Asset Management's Green Investment Group. The partnership was established in March 2022 and finalised in July 2022. The partnership leverages Fortum's decades-long experience pioneering solutions for challenging waste management issues and Macquarie's track record as a specialist green investor and global leader in the development of companies, assets and technologies that aim to accelerate the global transition to net zero.

Who is Fortum?

Fortum is the third-largest generator of carbon-free power in Europe. Fortum has production facilities in the Nordics, where energy from waste is utilised in the form of district heating and process heat as well as electricity. Fortum works closely with its district heat customers to continuously improve their products, and to help them maintain competitiveness in the long term.

Who is Macquarie Asset Management?

Macquarie Asset Management is a global asset manager, integrated across public and private markets. Trusted by institutions, governments, foundations and individuals to manage approximately £470 billion in assets, it provides a diverse range of investment solutions including real assets, real estate, credit and equities and multi-asset. Macquarie Asset Management is the world's largest infrastructure manager. Its Green Investments team is a global leader in the development of companies, assets and technologies that aim to accelerate the global transition to net zero. The team manages a diverse range of green energy assets in over 25 markets, spanning established renewables and emerging green technologies.

What is Energy from Waste?

Energy from Waste (EfW) refers to energy recovery from waste incineration. Mixed waste always contains some parts that cannot be recycled. This could be because it is mixed with other waste - for example kitchen roll that has been used to wipe up spilt food - or it could be because there is no economic or practical way to split out the recycling components such as metal springs in aerosol pumps.

For these kinds of materials, waste incineration is a safe and economically viable option to help ensure that non-recyclable waste does not end up in landfill. The energy gained in incineration can be used for district heating for neighbouring businesses or communities and electricity for the national grid. The South Clyde Energy Centre provides a local solution to decarbonise waste from Glasgow and the surrounding area and will help reduce the environmental impact of waste.

Project Parties

Key construction partners:

Procurement

Is your company interested in supplying goods or services to the South Clyde Energy Centre project? The planned upcoming tendering schedules for the different purchase packages are shown below. Please let us know about your interest by filling in the attached form.

Purchase Packages Planned Tendering Schedule
1. Main Equipment
2. Balance of Plant
Mechanical Equipment
Hoists Oct-24
Piping and Insulation
Piping installation works May-24
Thermal insulation of piping and equipment Jul-24
Water Treatment
Fuel Handling
Weighbridge system Apr-24
COMPRESSED AIR PLANT
WORKSHOP AND LABORATORY EQUIPMENT AND TOOLS
Workshop equipment and tools Jul-25
Laboratory equipment 1Q/2025
Office and control room furniture Jul-25
3. Automation Systems
Field instruments for process systems incl. flow meters Sep-24
Installation of field instruments and cabling
4. Electrical Systems
5. Buildings and civil works
CC05 Façade works Mar-24
CC06 MEP works; Mechanical/Electrical and plumbing works Mar-24
CC07 Internal Fit out of building and ancillary areas Nov-24
CC08 Area finishing works 3Q/2025
7. Site Management

News