Manure could power two million homes

Manure, slurry and food could be used to create enough energy to heat and power more than two million homes in Britain, the Government will claim.

Source: Copyright 2009, Telegraph
Date: February 18, 2009
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The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is launching a task force to help sectors including farming and the water industry meet goals to produce energy from anaerobic digestion, which generates gas from the break down of organic material without oxygen.

More than 100 million tonnes of organic material is produced by the UK per year that could be used to produce biogas.

Speaking at the NFU conference in Birmingham today, Farming and Environment Minister Jane Kennedy is expected to say: "We're producing more organic waste in this country than we can handle, over 12 million tonnes of food waste a year - and farmers know too well the challenges of managing manure and slurry.

"There are alternatives to sending organic waste to landfill. Anaerobic digestion is a true solution.

"This material could produce enough heat and power to run more than two million homes - helping to prevent dangerous climate change by providing a renewable energy source as well as reducing our reliance on landfill.

"Farmers, I know, share this vision of making the UK world leaders in this innovative technology and I applaud their aim for 1,000 on-farm AD plants by 2020 to power their operations, as well as using the leftovers as bio-fertiliser."

Read the full article on the Telegraph