Hilary Benn announces funding for anaerobic digestion
Environment Secretary Hilary Benn has announced that five successful anaerobic digestion projects will receive Government grants to create energy from waste.
The grants are being awarded under the £10 million Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs anaerobic digestion demonstration programme, and form part of wider plans to tackle food waste and packaging.
Defra selected the five projects because they will demonstrate cutting-edge technology and will be able to show the benefits of anaerobic digestion to a range of industries.
The successful applicants are:
* Biocycle South Shropshire;
* Blackmore Vale Diaries;
* GWE Biogas;
* Staples Vegetables; and
* United Utilities and National Grid.
The projects will be built between now and the end of March 2011 and are being administered by the Waste & Resources Action Programme.
Benn said: “We need to rethink the way we deal with waste – we must see it as a resource, not a problem. In the UK we produce 100 million tonnes of food and other organic waste every year that we could be using to create enough heat and energy to run over two million homes – that’s five Birminghams.
“This new technology will provide a source of renewable energy while reducing methane emissions from agriculture and landfill by diverting organic waste, especially food waste, from landfill. These first five projects will show other British businesses the benefits and possibilities of anaerobic digestion and help us become world leaders in this exciting new technology.”
WRAP chief executive Liz Goodwin added: “These projects are truly ground-breaking and will be used to show how cutting edge technology can work in practice. Between them, they demonstrate how anaerobic digestion can help the UK efficiently meet the challenges of reducing carbon emissions, increasing renewable energy generation and improving sustainable food production. We will use what we learn from these projects to help develop the industry across the UK.”
In April, Chancellor Alistair Darling announced additional funding of £10 million for anaerobic digestion and waste infrastructure in the 2009 Budget. But critics said the £10m funding was not enough. Financial advisory firm Catalyst Corporate Finance partner Mark Wilson said: “On the one hand the Government has been championing AD vociferously for the past six months and then they announce what is a paltry funding commitment to the sector. Mixed messages are not helpful.”
A specific element of the anaerobic digestion demonstration programme is to look at ‘state of the art’ technologies or processes and to demonstrate commercially viable but innovative projects which could be replicated throughout the UK.
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