Millions of tonnes of agricultural residues and silage could be used to power the national grid after the establishment of a biogas task group was announced by DEFRA minister Jane Kennedy during the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) annual conference in Birmingham.
The announcement could see farmers and growers producing more than 4.5 per cent of the UK’s renewable energy target over the next 11 years.
The task group will deliver an implementation plan for the AD Shared Goals strategy, which builds upon the NFU’s goal to have 1,000 biogas plants running on 500 kilowatts of energy and at least 100 larger waste-linked facilities on farms by 2020, processing silage, manures and slurries.
NFU renewable energy adviser Dr Jonathan Scurlock said: “The NFU has been instrumental in working with DEFRA on these plans to boost the UK’s capability for anaerobic digestion. This vision for agriculture and waste management is a step in the right direction and we look forward to working with Stephen Lea of the Chartered Institute of Waste Management to implement these shared goals for anaerobic digestion.”
The amount of manures and slurries processed by 1,000 farm biogas plants would be about 20 million tonnes per year, roughly a quarter of the UK total.
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