Development Consent Orders (DCO) were devised to speed up the planning process for critical schemes, securing an early precedent for subsequent Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs). Rookery South Resource Energy Facility, on the site of a former brick clay extraction pit in Bedforshire, was the first ever DCO application to be granted, and it piloted much of the early understanding of the benefits of the process. The facility itself processes waste that cannot be reused or recycled to generate enough clean energy for 75,000 homes.