Coutinho announces another energy planning delay

Claire Coutinho has postponed a planning decision on yet another energy infrastructure project, which this time has been triggered by a wider permitting moratorium on energy from waste plants.

The energy security and net zero secretary of state has announced that she has pushed back the deadline for a decision on North Lincolnshire Green Energy Park’s application.

The company has applied for development consent for a 95MW combined heat and power plant, incorporating carbon capture and hydrogen production, on the Flixborough industrial estate, Scunthorpe.

The application also includes a 5km long extended district heat network to supply gas and power to a proposed housing development.

Coutinho had been due to make a decision on the development consent application by last Friday (10 May) but has pushed this deadline until 18 July.

The delay, Coutinho explained, is to ensure ‘sufficient time’ for her officials to consider the outcome of work being carried out by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) into the role of waste incineration in managing residual wastes across England.

This review follows a direction issued by the food and farming minister Mark Spencer to the Environment Agency last month to temporarily pause the issuing of environmental permits for new waste incineration facilities until 24 May 2024.

The examination by the Planning Inspectorate, which handles the determination of major infrastructure projects like the proposed energy park, concluded just under 12 months ago and a report was submitted to the secretary of state in August last year.

Defra’s temporary pause on permits include one for an energy from waste plant in the constituency of Steve Barclay, who heavily criticised the scheme before taking on the role of environment secretary of state last November.

The planning delay is the latest in a series including Coutinho’s decision to stall a decision on in Cambridgeshire’s giant Sunnica solar farm.