Construction work on a groundbreaking £3million environmentally-friendly power plant in rural Cumbria has started with the site on course to be ready to start supplying electricity later this year.
The first stage of the project at Dryholme Farm, near Silloth, includes ground work, creating service roads and clamps to hold material to feed the Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plant.
Farmgen, Britain’s leading specialist in farm-based AD power generation, says that work will also start shortly on building the tanks that will form the centerpiece of the scheme.
Once up and running, Dryholme Farm will generate 1.2MW of electricity - enough continuous power for more than 1,000 homes - and will provide a significant boost to Cumbria’s rural economy.
Farmgen Chief Operating Officer Ed Cattigan said: “We have made a really strong start to the new year and work has now begun in earnest at Dryholme Farm. It is anticipated we will be in a position to start generating electricity from the site later this year.
“Dryholme Farm will play a key part in Farmgen’s £30million investment to create the biggest ‘energy farming’ expansion programme in Britain and we believe it will point the way for future AD plants across Cumbria. We feel there is huge potential for AD in Cumbria and across the UK.”
Farmgen has already earmarked a number of potential ‘energy farming’ sites in the county. Work on Dryholme’s £3million “sister” plant in Warton, Lancashire – where the pre-cast concrete for the site was supplied by Harrison’s of Silloth – is also now well-advanced.
The Warton plant is also on target to start providing renewable energy to power more than 1,000 homes this year.
Farmgen has also unveiled plans for its third plant in a ground-breaking move that could see it supplying power to a nearby open prison.
It has applied for permission to build a £3million AD plant on a farm next to Kirkham Prison in Lancashire. Farmgen has also revealed it is in discussions to supply the Category D open prison’s energy needs, using crops grown by inmates at its farms.
The news that Farmgen is in talks to supply the prison comes after it was announced that Marks & Spencer has signed a five-year contract to buy the energy generated from its Warton operation at a fixed price, as part of its ‘Plan A’ commitment to procure more renewable energy from small-scale energy sources.
Ed Cattigan said: “We are actively looking at new sites to develop more farm-based AD plants, using Warton and Silloth as blueprints.
“The fact we are talking to the prison service, among others, about their supply needs, shows just how much interest there is in this form of green energy production.”
Planning applications are also being prepared for more plants in Lancashire, Cumbria and Staffordshire, as well as other sites, which are currently being lined up across the UK.
Established in 2009, Farmgen is now Britain’s leading specialist in farm-based AD power generation. It has put together an impressive consortium of expert UK-based firms to deliver its first tranche of AD plants. The consortium includes leading members of the Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association (ADBA).
The industry’s latest technology and know-how is being supplied to the project by leading UK process and technology business Monsal. It has been involved in over 200 AD projects and has the largest team of ‘biogas-to-energy’ technology specialists in the country.
Other members include Kirk Environmental, a specialist company manufacturing AD tanks, and engineering specialist Agrilek, which operates from Barrow-in-Furness and has been brought on board to connect the plant to the national grid.
The new AD plants use crops from fields surrounding the participating farms to create ‘biogas’, which is then used to generate electricity.
AD plants are already commonplace across Europe – with around 4,000 operating in Germany alone. Farmgen’s plants are broadly carbon-neutral and, compared to other alternative renewable energy generators, such as wind turbines, have significantly less visual impact.
Ed Cattigan said: “Renewables and other sources of green energy will play a critical role in providing the country’s power supplies over the next decade. Dryholme Farm will be at the forefront of this revolution in ‘energy farming’ and locally-sourced power generation.
“As the country moves over to green energy, as part of the move to a low carbon economy, there is a strong opportunity for many farmers in the UK to create a sustainable and stronger future for themselves by switching to ‘energy farming’.”
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