Latest News
Updating you on our activities
26th June 2025: Devonport Energy from Waste Combined Heat and Power Facility – Scheduled Outage Update
The planned maintenance work at our facility is progressing well, with the main outage now completed. We’ve safely restarted operations in stages and are currently processing waste. The facility will continue running for the next 4 to 5 weeks to help keep waste levels as low as possible.
Health, Safety and Environmental Performance
We are pleased to repost that there have been no significant safety incidents during the outage and works have been conducted in strict compliance with regulatory standards. Environmental responsibility and worker safety underpin all activities, and our staff continue to check that our contractors are complying with site safety rules.
Operational Progress
Key works to date:
- Completion of boiler and steam system repairs, including non-destructive testing (NDT) and pressure testing
- Completion of boiler refractory lining works
- Removal and shipment of the turbine rotor, guide blade carriers, and associated components to Germany for inspection and refurbishment under the 100,000-hour Turbine Major Inspection programme
- Installation of a turbine blank, enabling waste-only operation during the turbine's absence
- Completion of all electrical and ancillary systems upgrades
- Erection and subsequent safe removal of over 100 tonnes of scaffolding within the boiler structure
- The boiler slowly warmed with oil burners to allow for the 48-hour refractory dry-out process
- MVV’s emissions monitoring partner, CES, have now conducted plant start up extractive emissions testing as required by the Environment Agency
Upcoming Activities
Stage 2 of the turbine refit - this involves replacing key turbine components, including the blades and bearings, which are critical for maintaining efficiency and reliability of the facility’s power generation.
We sincerely appreciate the dedication and professionalism of our staff and the many contractors who have contributed to this complex maintenance outage. We’d also like to thank the local community for their continued patience and understanding throughout this essential work.
19th June 2024: Save the date – community open day
This year’s open day will be held on Thursday 1st August from 11am until 3pm. The event is completely free and will include the usual activities, site tours and refreshments.
Come along and find out how we use your non-recyclable waste as a fuel to generate heat and electricity. Be inspired to re-think how you use resources and energy as well as how we can all reduce waste for the good of our planet.
We have shared some photographs from last year and look forward to seeing you in August!
25th April 2024: Inspiring the next generation of engineers!
Throughout the year, our Community Liaison Manager, Jade, runs visits for schools and other interested groups at our EfW CHP Facility. Ivybridge Community College in Devon do more than just teaching science to their students; by immersing them in real-world situations, they are igniting a passion for sustainability beyond the classroom.
Jade says, “It’s more than just a field trip, it’s a journey of transformation! Empowered by knowledge, these students are poised to redefine the way we think about waste, resources and energy.”
16th September 2023: IMechE Cardboard Boat Race
For the first year ever, we entered an MVV boat into the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Cardboard Boat Race – yes, the boats really were made from cardboard!
Our Community Liaison Manager, Jade, offered a week of boat-building for children of our staff at the end of the summer holidays. They spent the week researching, designing and building their boat.
On race day, two members of the team took up the challenge to paddle their boat from Commercial Wharf to the Mayflower steps. The boat was somewhat over-engineered and floated far too well! The competitors refused to give up though and through sheer perseverance made it the full length of the course – well done, Edie, Charlie and the rest of the team.
Watch this space for photographs of our summer events!
11th August 2023: Open Day success!
Around 2000 people attended this year’s open day at the start of the school summer holidays – by far the highest attendance ever! We would like to thank all of the providers who brought such amazing stalls and information to share, as well as the local community who turned out in force.
If you were not able to attend this year, don’t worry – we have more events planned and the open day will return next summer.
13th July 2023: Open day - save the date!
Last year’s open day was a roaring success, in large part due to the fantastic turnout from the local (and wider) community. Planning is already underway for this year’s event and we hope you will be able to join us!
This year’s open day will be on Thursday 3rd August from 2pm until 6pm. Access to site is via our main entrance at Camels Head or the pedestrian gate from Blackie Woods (Talbot Gardens). Limited parking is available in the MoD car park, off Creek Road.
As always, the event is completely free with family-friendly activities and refreshments on offer throughout the day. We look forward to seeing you there!
6th May 2023: Coronation of King Charles III
From Saturday 6th May through to Friday 19th May, we displayed the colours of our nation in support of the monarchy and to celebrate the coronation of HRH King Charles III. Devon has always been a place close to the heart of King Charles III and as the country celebrates his coronation, only a few counties have as much to look back on as Devon.
Here at Devonport, we look back to 2016 when HRH King Charles III came to site and met the team. Tony, from our control room team even taught him how to operate the waste crane!
The Coronation reflects the monarch’s role today and looks toward the future while being rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry.
5th May 2023: Celebrating Plymouth Argyle’s promotion!
We are lighting-up green and white to celebrate our home football team, Plymouth Argyle. After 13 years, The Pilgrims have returned to the Championship! The Green Army sealed promotion with a 1-0 win over Burton Albion at Home Park on Saturday 29th April in a game that sparked wild celebrations. Come on you Greens!
31st March 2023: Contract year roundup
March marks the end of the contract year with our partner councils - The South West Devon Waste Partnership (SWDWP). Here are some highlights from the contract year:
- We received 384 general enquiries, 4 complaints and 39 compliments
- Over 4000 people visited site for waste education and site tours
- We held a record-breaking open day with over 350 people in attendance and 180 of them taking up a site tour
- 48 schools came to site for STEM education
- A resource pack was made and shared with teachers for British Science Week
- 25 Community Groups came for more technical site tours
- We held our annual Clean Our Creek event in October 2022
- Our Community Liaison Manager attended litter picks
- We continue to work with Pollenize, hosting an apiary and supporting their research into bee behaviour, moths and biodiversity
- Awarded nearly £4000 in sponsorship
Overall, another successful year with lots of activity and stakeholder engagement!
15th February 2023: Litter picking and learning
On Saturday, MVV’s Community Liaison Manager hosted Brownies from Devon on site.
They collected litter from Blackie Woods and followed its journey through our plant - from waste to energy!
16th December 2022: Christmas charity card
It was Devonport’s turn to organise the annual schools’ competition to design our e-card for charity.
This year, the challenge was taken up by Fletewood Primary School who chose Shekinah as their charity.
Shekinah help and support people to make changes towards a positive future - including health, housing and employment.
The winning design was made into an e-card for MVV UK staff to send out and the runners-up all received a goody bag and gift card in acknowledgement of their efforts.
9th December 2022: Autumn sponsorship
Our annual sponsorship programme continues to attract high quality applications from worthy local organisations. In this year’s autumn round, we were delighted to support Clean Our Patch (community litter pickers) with their schools’ project to design anti-litter signage for local play parks. The children’s work is now proudly on display at parks around Plymouth. We also funded a vertical garden for Fletewood Primary School so that the children can start gardening in spite of very limited outdoor space.
16th November 2022: New welfare facilities
You may be aware that since the start of operations we have had some temporary cabins on site. These provide welfare facilities (office space, kitchen, and bathroom) for our permanent and semi-permanent contractors. Subsequently we have applied to Plymouth City Council and received approval through planning to replace the temporary cabins with a permanent building.
The new building will use similar foundations as the old cabins so earthworks will be kept to a minimum. It will be pre-constructed from six Portakabin-style units, which will be bolted together to form a single storey building. The new building will provide four offices, male and female shower and changing areas, drying room and kitchen/canteen.
As with all works on site, we aim to cause minimal disruption to our neighbours and all contractors receive information about working considerately as part of their site induction. If you have any queries, please contact our Community Liaison Manager, Jade.
31st October 2022: Spooktacular Clean the Creek event
Once again, people turned out in force – and fancy dress! – for our annual community litter pick and spooktacular Clean the Creek event. We collected litter from the local woods and waterways, leaving them a better place for wildlife and people to enjoy. Seven bags of litter were collected, less than in previous years which suggests people are generally leaving less behind when they enjoy the woods.
We would like to thank everyone for attending and look forward to seeing you again next year!
28th October 2022: Lighting up to show our support
In the years since we achieved full operations (in 2015), we have developed a calendar of annual events that we support with our external lighting scheme. These include Saints days as well as Remembrance and various awareness days of significance to our staff. We are sometimes asked by members of the public to support other charities and awareness days.
This week our electrical engineer changed the lighting scheme twice! On Monday 24th October, we shone purple to raise awareness of PoTS (Postural Tachycardia Syndrome). This is an abnormal increase in heart rate which occurs after sitting up or standing. You can find out more here: https://www.potsuk.org/
From Tuesday 25th October through to Sunday 30th October we have been displaying the colours of the Royal Marines as they celebrate their 358th birthday. The newly appointed Devonport Naval Base Commander, Brigadier Mike Tanner, OBE, ADC, Royal Marines, said “We are very happy to see our colours displayed so prominently on the Royal Marines’ 358th anniversary. It is a fine demonstration of the cooperation that exists between the naval base and our neighbours at MVV, who also happen to be our principal energy supplier, helping us save significant sums in these times of high energy costs.”
25th October 2022: Sponsorship awards
In this year’s autumn round of sponsorship, two very similar projects have been successful in securing funding. Plymouth’s Scrapstore and Torbay’s Proper Job have both been awarded around £900 to run Christmas wreath-making workshops with their local schools. These organisations have similar aims, to reduce waste and find creative ways to repurpose materials. We look forward to seeing the outcome of these workshops later in the year.
Applications for the spring round of sponsorship are now open to groups in the Plymouth, Devon and Torbay areas.
17th October 2022: Save the date – annual litter pick
As in previous years, we will be holding a community litter pick in Blackie Woods and along Weston Mill Creek/Barne Brake.
This year we will have a Halloween theme so we look forward to seeing you in fancy dress! The event will take place on Saturday 29th October, from 12pm until 3pm.
Please contact Jade (07818 518027) for more information.
18th August 2022: Open day photos
We would like to thank Nellie, our HR and Administration Manager’s daughter, for being the official photographer on the day. She captured some fantastic shots of all of the activities and we would like to share some of them with you!
4th August 2022: Annual open day
Wow what a scorcher of a day!! We were delighted to welcome over 270 people to our open day this year, with families coming from far and wide to take part in activities. MVV staff pitched in as always, offering the ever-popular site tours which were taken up by 185 visitors. We were joined by the ocean conservation trust, who gave out free wetsuits, and Andy Blackwell, who ran woodworking sessions building imaginative objects and characters from wood. The Scrapstore brought their soft play and ran junk modelling workshops, all accompanied by the very popular local junk band.
Staff from our partner councils and our bottom ash processors, Rock Solid, were also on hand to answer questions and explain how our local waste is dealt with. The amazing Clean Our Patch brought along a small selection from their litter archive and provided information about their innovative new programme for schools.
The community fridge charity provided fantastic food (which was ALL surplus from local business), we even had Ben’s ice-cream van giving out free ‘99’s! Edie (age 9) opened a sweet stall with exciting competitions and, going with the theme of summer, we gave out over 200 free packs of sunscreen. Here at MVV we have really taken note of the issues and cost of living crisis local people are dealing with and engaged in some great advice and guidance throughout the day.
We are already planning for next year to enable even more people to take part. The community open day 2023 will take place around the same time as this year, so if you would like to get involved please keep and eye on our social media and website for upcoming dates. If, for any reason you missed the event and would like to attend site for a private or group tour please get in touch with our Community Liaison Manager, Jade Beavan.
Watch this space for photos from the day!
