Google backs biogas project - BioEnergy News

Google backs biogas project - 13 September 2011

The waste from 9,000 pigs will be used to produce electricity and cut CO2 emissions

In North Carolina, US, Duke University and electric and gas service provider Duke Energy, have developed a renewable energy project with the help of search engine Google. The project creates electricity from pig excrement.

The biogas plant has been set up at the Yadkinville-based Loyd Ray Farms, which is home to 9,000 pigs.

Duke Energy and the university have invested $1.2 million (€880,000 million) in the project to date, however Google's investment has not been divulged.

Originally proposed almost three years ago, the project also received grants from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources Lagoon Conversion Program.

The plant will slash CO2 emissions by 5,000 tonnes a year – the same as removing 900 cars from the road.

Both Duke Energy and Duke University will cover the costs of operating and maintaining the plant for the first 10 years that it is online. Google will cover a percentage of the university's costs in return for some of the carbon offsets for a five-year period.

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Co-op Backs Energy Farms - Manchester Evening News

The Co-operative Bank in Manchester has agreed a £2.1m funding package for a north west company with plans to build a new generation of innovative 'energy farms'.

Lancashire-based Farmgen aims to build 50 environmentally-friendly anaerobic digestion power plants, which mimic the processes inside a cow's stomach to generate a methane-rich biogas.




The farm-based plants are fuelled by crops grown on site, and Farmgen has already agreed a deal to supply energy to Marks & Spencer.

The company is lead by Simon Rigby, former chief executive of the Leeds-based utilities infrastructure business Spice, which was sold to private equity outfit Cinven in September for £251m.

Farmgen's first plant at Carr Farm near Warton in Lancashire, which was formerly a dairy farm, is financed by a £2.1m loan from the Co-op, as well as funding from a group of private investors.

When fully operational next year it will generate 800kW of electricity – enough to power more than 1,000 homes.

Mr Rigby said: "It's a real lifeline for farmers and a big help for the UK economy. It gives farmers long term stability.

"It allows them to farm much more intensively, rather than just being subsistence farmers. It's going to breathe life into the countryside."

Farmgen was advised by a team from Manchester-based solicitors Heatons, which worked with the Co-op for nine months to secure the 11 year loan facility.

A team of six lawyers from the firm were involved in the project, advising on banking, corporate, construction, commercial and property matters.

Planning applications are currently being prepared for more plants across Lancashire, Cumbria and Staffordshire, with more sites being lined up across the country.

Partner James Flynn said: “This deal represented a new direction for the Co-operative but Farmgen’s plans for the plant are absolutely ground breaking.

“Farmgen’s overarching plan is to set up AD plants on farms across the UK. This could be a key driver in the country achieving its renewable energy targets, and we look forward to working with Farmgen on the future programme.

“For us, the energy sector is a big growth market for our business and so it is great to be involved in a project that is the first of its kind.”

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