Viverone, solid urban waste: the administration against the Cavaglià project “This area has already given too much, our tourism would risk a blow”
VIVERONE. Outrage by the executive of the mayor of Viverone Renzo Carisio against the project (fresh from presentation) for the construction of a waste-to-energy plant in nearby Cavaglià.
«The possibility of building an incinerator in Cavaglià, an area that has already given in terms of waste management – says Carisio – represents a further impoverishment of our territories, with all the possible risks associated with the health, agricultural and tourism sectors. The latter sector which sees the Municipality of Viverone strongly concerned about the project. It is true that no one wants waste, and in particular incinerators. And that it cannot be buried indefinitely, but it is believed that our area in recent years has been too available. As municipal administrators, we therefore express our concern and declare ourselves available for any common actions ». Criticisms in this regard were also expressed by the Legambiente club of Biella, the Valledora Movement and the Municipality of Alice Castello.
What is it and where
The project was presented to the provincial administration of Biella by the company A2A Ambiente in order to set in motion the authorization process. The construction of a modern waste-to-energy plant is planned that will burn municipal solid waste to produce electricity, in the area where the company’s other plants already operate, in the technological center of Cavaglià, in the Gerbido region, thus completing the disposal cycle. waste after the landfill extension was blocked by the TAR. In fact, on the site there is the plant that transforms garbage into biocubes, a plastic selection center has been created for recycling with cutting-edge separation technologies and self-learning systems through the use of artificial intelligence and are about to be two plants were activated to transform non-recyclable plastic slags into fuels for the kilns of cement factories and secondary agents of second degree for blast furnaces in steel mills, as well as one for the treatment of the wet fraction, combined with green mowing, to produce 5 million of cubic meters of biomethane per year and compost for agriculture.
The new plant, in which about forty employees plus those destined for maintenance would work, should have a maximum thermal combustion power of around 110 megawatts, to valorise up to 278 thousand tons of waste per year, from which 240 gigawatt hours will be obtained every year. of electricity to be fed into the national distribution network. The new waste-to-energy plant should consist of a combustion line, another for flue gas purification and a condensing steam turbine for energy production. The designers declare that the emissions produced are absolutely below the minimum thresholds allowed by law, both at national and European level, while to recover the bottom ashes produced by the valorisation process, specialized companies will be used to transform them into materials for construction, recovering metals. The net energy produced will be able to power approximately 95,000 households with an average energy requirement for each of them of 2,700 kilowatt hours per year, saving over 45,000 tons of oil per year.
the three scenarios
There are currently three different hypotheses to use the energy produced. One relates to the production of hydrogen to be used for the transport of vehicles and trains; another to the power supply of a factory for the production of recycled paper; the last one foresees the construction of a greenhouse of 20 hectares in width, where to start the production of cherry tomatoes in hydroponic cultivation (without use of the soil), on the model of what happens in Holland, where this type of cultivation has met an important outlet market in the canning industry sector. The latter initiative could also create 200 new jobs, to which is added the employment contribution for the construction of the plant that will employ an average of 150 workers for 35 months with peaks of 300 in peak periods for over a year. Lydia mass