TESCO Shopping Complex to be Powered by Food Using Anaerobic Digestion

The power of food

Supermarket giant TESCO'S new distribution centre in Widnes is to be completely powered by renewable energy generated from food waste, they have announced.

It has joined with with transport company Stobart Croup, and food waste recycling experts the PDM Croup in a move that will see the new shopping centre take its renewable energy from PDM's combined heat and power (CHP) plant that turns 230,000 tonnes of food waste, including Tesco's unwanted, into green renewable heat and electricity. The retailing company is already working with PDM which recycles all Tesco's meat waste at present.

There are no losses in the cable route either as the power is sent via their own cable link which provides renewable energy direct from the CHP plant to the neighbouring distribution centre.

Tesco has leased the new 528,000 sq.ft. distribution centre, which will see its first customers this summer, to provide increased capacity to service its growing network of stores in the north west of England.

Juliette Bishop, Tesco's corporate affairs manager, said:

"This venture is an ideal example of how sustainability is at the very core of the Tesco business and it's great that we can demonstrate that our food waste is directly providing power back into our operations, helping us to reduce waste going to landfill and our carbon footprint."

Stobart and PDM will work together to offer Stobart's customer-base comprised of predominantly food retailers, a recycling service. The agreement would see food waste taken in return journey loads, on Stobart vehicles, to Widnes.

The Widnes plant recycles more than 230,000 tonnes of biomass fuels a year to generate renewable combined heat and power using biomass-to-energy technology.

The fuel is derived from food and other bio-wastes produced from every stage of the food chain, from farm to dinner plate.

PDM Croup director Robert Ratcliffe explained:

"Using green power is becoming an important objective for many businesses, however it's extremely rare that such power can come directly from anywhere other than the National Grid. This type of closed-loop biomass-to-energy relationship is rare in the UK and it's great that we can work together to not only help bolster green credentials, but also enable Tesco to demonstrate that any food waste it generates is essentially helping to power its own supply chain."

UK Government Encourages Itself to Produce Renewable Energy in EA News Item

The Public sector has been urged to generate renewable energy to cut costs and emissions.

The Environment Agency and Partnerships for Renewables today urged public sector organisations in the UK to consider using their land and property to generate renewable energy, which has the potential to provide power for over 1.5 million households.

Councils and agencies could provide power for over 1.5 million households

The Environment Agency and Partnerships for Renewables today urged public sector organisations in the UK to consider using their land and property to generate renewable energy, which has the potential to provide power for over 1.5 million households.

In the midst of the recent focus on economic and political crises, the two organisations are using World Environment Day (5 June) to encourage the public sector to tackle the impending crisis of climate change and set an example to others by taking positive action.

The organisations have calculated that public sector organisations in the UK could generate up to some 3 gigawatts of power - enough to power all the households in Newcastle, Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Liverpool and Doncaster combined and save 3m tonnes of carbon dioxide per year - by installing renewable energy technologies such as wind turbines and hydropower schemes on their land.

Public sector bodies own more than 10 per cent of the land in the UK including tens of thousands of buildings and over one million hectares of land. Despite this, only a tiny fraction of the total amount of green energy which the UK is capable of producing comes from renewable energy projects on public sector property.

Although many public sector bodies are already beginning to investigate how they can utilise their land to generate renewable energy, the Environment Agency and Partnerships for Renewables are calling for more organisations to install clean energy technologies to help reduce carbon emissions in addition to generating revenue from the sale of electricity and saving the taxpayer money.

Last year the Secretary of State for the Department of Energy and Climate Change, Ed Miliband, and environmental groups highlighted the need for public sector bodies to take a lead role in the fight against climate change and promote green energy.

The Environment Agency is urging other public sector bodies to follow its example after its announcement in November 2008 to build up to 80 wind turbines on Environment Agency owned land across the country, developing around 200 megawatts of renewable energy capacity - enough to power 90,000 households and save around 200,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year. In addition the turbines will generate up to £2.4 million of revenue every year - money that will be ploughed back into protecting and improving the environment, and adapting to climate change. Other organisations such as British Waterways have also announced similar plans.

The Environment Agency recently ranked as the top green UK public sector organisation in the annual Sunday Times Green List. 99 per cent of electricity used by the Environment Agency is from renewable sources and stringent targets are in place for reducing energy and water. Recycling facilities are available in the offices covering 20 different types of waste. The organisation’s green travel policies have led to a mileage reduction of some 8.9 million miles over the past two years alone and in three years, the Environment Agency has managed to reduce its overall carbon footprint by 14 per cent and water use by ten per cent.

Environment Agency Head of Climate Change and Sustainable Development Tony Grayling said:

"Investment in green technology such as wind turbines not only help cut carbon emissions and secure more home grown energy - they also make financial sense to those involved and ultimately save the taxpayer money.

"The pressures businesses and the public sector are facing may tempt them to cut corners and spend less attention on environmental improvement programmes, but it is now more important than ever before that we look to alternative sources of energy to meet our demands."

Stephen Ainger, Chief Executive of Partnerships for Renewables which was established by the Carbon Trust in 2006, said:

"By embracing and fulfilling its renewable energy potential the UK’s public sector has the opportunity to not only demonstrate strong leadership domestically, in the fight against climate change, it has the opportunity to set the standard for public sector organisations to follow globally. The role of the public sector organisations leading this movement, such as the Environment Agency and British Waterways, should not be underestimated".

Friends of the Earth’s Executive Director Andy Atkins said:

"The public sector has a key role to play in cutting emissions by harnessing the UK’s vast renewable energy potential. Developing green energy could create tens of thousands of new jobs, reduce our dependency of the tyranny of fossil fuels and give this country real influence in the global battle against climate change".

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The vehicle for achieving this investment is Partnerships for Renewables which was set up by Carbon Trust Enterprises in 2006 to work in partnership with the public sector to develop, construct and operate renewable energy projects. By providing a one stop shop for the development of renewable energy projects focused on a project development process tailored to the specific needs of the public sector, Partnerships for Renewables provide a way for Public Sector Bodies to access the economic and environmental benefits associated with renewable energy and contribute towards the fight against climate change without diverting public sector resources away from frontline services.

Biogas Plant Plan - Cumbrian Farmers to Generate Own Energy

Cumbrian farmers to generate own energy through biogas plan

Farmers in Cumbria are teaming up to develop anaerobic digestion facilities to generate their own renewable energy from agricultural waste.

Community Renewable Energy North West (CoRE NW), a group based in Workington, plans to set up a number of co-operatives to develop the plants, which will produce electricity and heat from farmers' manure and silage.

The first plant is to be developed at Middle Farm in Silloth, in the north west of the county, and could secure planning permission next spring. A feasibility study is currently under way, with 10 farmers interested in getting involved.

Hopes are that the £3.5 million digester could be commissioned by the end of 2010, producing just under 1MW of power - around seven million kWh units a year, or enough electricity to supply about 2,000 homes.

Plans are to use heat produced by the facility in the farm's four large chicken sheds, as well as to the next-door cement block factory.

Social enterprise NRG NorthEast Renewables Group is to supply and install the digester, subject to planning permission, with technology expected to be supplied by German biogas company Biogas Hochreiter.

The project will see local farmers owning the new anaerobic digester along with CoRE NW itself, while NRG will be a minor stakeholder.

Core NW has set up an energy supply company (ESCo) to manage energy sales, with expectations that the facility could bring in £1.2 million a year, achieving payback in around six years. Profits from the project - around £100,000 a year - will go towards setting up three more anaerobic digestion plants in the area, as well as supporting other community renewable energy projects.

Research behind the project has suggested that farmers involved in an anaerobic digestion scheme could see an annual income of £20,000, along with up to £16,300 for supplying materials and dividends averaging £10,000 a year.
Digestion

Anaerobic digestion involves bacterial feeding on organic material in large tanks, producing a methane-rich biogas that can be used to generate energy, as well as a residue that can be used as a fertiliser.

It is seen as a particularly attractive technology for north west Cumbria, since the region has a high density of dairy farms, which produce a considerable amount of manure and slurry, which is difficult to deal with under new legal controls.

CoRE NW said digestion plants could effectively double the profitability of dairy farmers.

Mike Pearson, who owns the farm where the first digester is being proposed, said: "We think this a great way forward for Cumbrian farmers. As well as increasing our income, it also means we reduce our usage of chemicals and produce renewable energy."

Initial work on the Middle Farm project was funded by West Cumbria social enterprise project The Hub, which is run by Lancashire-based industrial and provident society Co-operative and Mutual Solutions.

Feedstock for the plant is likely to inclure 20,000 tonnes of slurry, 10,000 tonnes of silage from currently unproductive land and 3,000 tonnes of chicken manure. Some 10,000 tonnes of food waste from Lakeland Creameries and other local sources could also be used in the plant.

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