Carr Farm £2.5M Green Energy Project Reaches Milestone, as AD Plant Construction Progresses

Image: Courtesy Farmgen

With all the worldwide business news being so bleak at the moment it is easy to forget that the Anaerobic Digestion Industry is still forging ahead with new projects.

So, it is good to be able to publicise a ground-breaking £2.5M renewable energy project, which is it's originator's Farmgen are claiming is changing the face of UK farming, has reached a major milestone.

After the completion of preliminary work on-site and the construction of service roads and clamps to hold material to feed the plant, building is now well progressed on the two large tanks, which will form the centre of interest in this biogas scheme.

Farmgen is the green energy specialist behind the farm-based Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plant at Warton, near Preston which they are describing as "revolutionary". At the Anaerobic Digestion News blog we are not so convinced that the calim to it being revolutionary can be sustained in reality.

Certainly, the site at Carr Farm is going to be "revolutionary" to farmer Jonathan Rigby who is moving out of dairy farming, which his family has been involved in for generations, into what is baing called ‘energy farming’.

We are also able to report that the construction of these two AD tanks is part of a push by Farmgen which will lead to a £30 million investment in what we are sure must be the biggest ‘energy farming’ expansion programme yet, in Britain.

Farmgen says that UK farmers of the future will set to make more money, more easily out of ‘energy farming’, than traditional dairy, animal husbandry and arable farming.

However, as a consumer it is surprising to read that farmers are receiving falling prices for farm products, whiel watching the weeekly food bil rise as much as it has done this year. However, they also state that farmers are being increasingly squeezed by the supermarket giants, and that would appear to be entirely credible as the bog chains consolidate their market share and enter into another supermarket price war to do so.

We are sure that more and more farmers are realising there’s a more sustainable future in helping to avoid Britain’s looming energy crisis and supporting the move towards a low carbon economy.

There is no doubt a power ‘generation gap’ which most likely will open-up over the next 5-10 years, as the UK’s ageing fleet of fossil-fuel-burning power plants come offline to meet tough new EU emissions targets.

At this blog site we, also agree that:

“Renewables and other sources of green energy will play a critical role in providing the country’s power supplies over the next decade,”

 explained Farmgen’s chief operating officer, Ed Cattigan.

“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’."

Go and take a look at the much longer article at http://www.farmgen.co.uk/news13.htm where you will also find out about the involvement of other UK and international companies involved in this biogas project, including:

• Kirk Environmental, a specialist company manufacturing AD tanks
• Edina, the leading renewable power generation specialists who will supply the plant’s generating equipment
• Engineering specialist Agrilek, from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, responsible for connecting the plant to the national grid
• Inenco, based in Lytham St Annes, Lancs, to trade the energy produced at Carr Farm
• Green Energy Farmers Ltd, who will supply the crops to the Anaerobic Digestion Plant
• Eimco Water Technologies Ltd, based in Tonbridge, Kent who act as the water treatment experts

We understand that Farmgen offer to run and manage a farm’s AD business, while providing a guaranteed income level for farmers for up to 10 years. The company says that they can also source finance and offer a joint venture approach to farmers interested in a possible AD project.