We are proud to share the progress and impact of the Westfield Energy Recovery Facility (WERF), a landmark project that exemplifies our commitment to sustainable infrastructure, strategic partnerships, and active asset management.

Built on the site of the former Westfield opencast coal mine in central Scotland, the WERF is a state-of-the-art Energy from Waste (EfW) facility and represents a major step forward in delivering Scotland’s circular economy ambitions. WERF’s commencement of operations aligns well with Scotland’s impending ban on municipal waste going to landfill, providing additional waste treatment capacity for up to 250,000 tonnes per year.

We first identified the Westfield opportunity in November 2021, when we had initial discussions with Brockwell Energy, ahead of their Final Investment Decision in December 2021. We were immediately drawn to the project’s strong fundamentals:

We then acquired the project in September 2022 and 4 months later we welcomed Viridor Energy as joint owners, building on our strong existing relationship. Their operational expertise and shared vision for sustainable energy made them a natural partner.

Our Environmental Services team has brought deep sectoral experience to the delivery of the asset and, moving to the operations phase, seeking to mitigate risks and maximise opportunities wherever possible.

The Westfield facility will deliver significant environmental and economic benefits:

This benchmark greenfield project demonstrates the diverse experience and skills within our investment and asset management teams with extensive collaboration required to cover the financial, commercial, technical and contractual evaluation of the project prior to our investment and throughout the delivery of the asset.

Congratulations to Gregor Carfrae and Matt Kemp in our Asset Management team and Tom Bayles, and Rebecca Collins in our Investment Team.