A turf cutting ceremony has been held today (August 4) to mark the start of the development of a 400-500kW anaerobic digester at Harper Adams University College's Shropshire campus.
The £3 million anaerobic digestion (AD) plant being built at the campus, in Edgmond near Newport, has been in planning for two and a half years. It is being designed by Bedfordshire-based AD operator BiogenGreenfinch and built by local contractor Adonis Construction, while energy giant E.ON will act in an advisory and support role for the scheme.
It is expected to be generating between 400-500kW of electricity and the equivalent of heat from farm and food waste by the end of March 2011 and the college said it is anticipated that it will offset campus carbon emissions "more than three times over".
Harper Adams also expects the development to create jobs and allow primary school pupils to find out more about renewable energy technology.
The college is one of three higher education institutions in England to have won a share of £10 million that was set aside for "transformational" projects under the Revolving Green Fund- which was set created by the Higher Education Funding Council for England and independent social enterprise Salix Finance.
Commenting on the project, principal of Harper Adams, David Llewellyn, said: "We are incredibly pleased that Harper Adams has been able to use this funding to make its AD plans a reality and we are excited to be here with partners today to finally start work on the site.
"Food and farm waste can be digested in the AD unit and recycled into three useful by-products instead of being left to degrade in landfill or elsewhere, leaking methane into the atmosphere. Biogas will fuel a unit producing both heat and power meaning we will be sheltered from fluctuating energy prices for at least the next 10 years and will make a significant contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions for our campus."
Other products of the process are a liquid fertiliser and compost, which can be used for the University College's farm and grounds operations, reducing reliance on manufactured fertilisers.
E.ON
Don Leiper, managing director of E.ON's Energy Services business, said: "The way we create and use energy is changing and projects like this will help us develop new, sustainable energy solutions for the future.
"Smaller, community scale, renewable energy projects such as this have two benefits; they provide a secure, reliable and low carbon energy supply whilst also making use of a valuable waste resource that would otherwise be sent to landfill."
John Ibbett, chairman of BiogenGreenfinch added that he first saw the commercial potential of AD during his student days at Harper Adams.
"Some 28 years later, it gives me enormous pride to now be part of the fulfillment of that vision on the very doorstep of the college", he said.
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