The contract award for the £150 million Ness Energy project was ratified by Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray councils in March and has now been concluded.

The project will be capable of processing 150,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste every year to generate electricity.

Acciona will be responsible for the design and turnkey construction, commissioning and the operation and maintenance (O&M) of the plant for a 20 year period, with a total budget of approximately €400m (£371m), including the EPC work (the turnkey engineering project) and the price of the O&M contract for the whole period.

For the operation and maintenance of the facilities for the entire duration of the contract, it will rely on the expertise of Indaver, a company specialized in waste management for over 25 years.

The project will provide a long-term, sustainable solution for non-recyclable municipal solid waste (MSW) produced in the city of Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Moray, as new legislation will ban waste going into landfill in Scotland from 2021.

The Ness Energy Project will be housed in a former gas storage site on the East Tullos Industrial Estate in Aberdeen, where it will treat non-recyclable waste in a clean, sustainable and comprehensive way. It will also generate electricity for the National Grid and heating for households in the Torry district.

The plant will comply with Scotland’s Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations and will be regulated by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), whose regulations are based on the strictest controls recently introduced by European directives.