The Mayor of London has officially kicked off work on the future £80 million plant that will transform household rubbish into clean energy to power up to 15,000 local homes.

Based in Dagenham, this will be one of the UK's first large scale advanced gasification plants and is expected to create 25 permanent skilled jobs as well as up to 100 construction jobs during the building works. Once it is operational in 2013 it will turn almost 100,000 tonnes of waste into around 19 megawatts of energy each year.

The London Waste and Recycling Board (LWARB) agreed a £8.9million loan to Biossence East London Ltd, some of which has been used to secure the site and complete preparation work. This is part of the London Waste and Recycling Board's commitment to supporting the development of new waste infrastructure in London.

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The site has been bought from Ford Motor Company which will benefit from the energy generated by the facility, the majority of which will be exported to the National Grid. The use of renewable energy plays an important role in the running of Ford's Dagenham plant, which has two existing wind turbines with a planned third on the way.

The Mayor also visited the adjacent Centre for Engineering and Manufacturing Excellence (CEME) campus where he met apprentices and trainees. The London Development Agency backed CEME, among other pioneering areas, is promoting low carbon technology and is seen as a key asset in the regeneration of the Thames Gateway area.

Mr Johnson said: "This will be a fantastic facility taking our everyday rubbish and miraculously transforming it into a valuable resource - electricity. Local people can rest easy knowing that instead of any rubbish they are unable to recycle being dumped in a landfill site and emitting harmful greenhouse gas emissions, it will be used to power their homes with green energy.

(CD/GK)