Building to start on Silloth ‘green’ power plant
BUILDING work on a £2.5m environmentally-friendly power plant in Cumbria is set to start later this year after planners approved the farm-based project.
Farmgen, the Blackpool-based company behind the Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plant in Silloth, said it expects the plant to be supplying electricity to the national grid by early 2011, having received the green light from Allerdale Council earlier this month.
The plant, which will generate enough continuous power for more than 1,000 homes, uses grass silage and other crops from fields surrounding Dryholme farm to create biogas, which is then used to generate electricity.
The company said it believes other similar AD operations will soon be commonplace across the UK and it has already earmarked a number of other potential sites across Cumbria.
Ed Cattigan, chief operating officer of Farmgen, said: “We believe there is huge potential for Anaerobic Digestion in Cumbria and across the UK. Our operation at Dryholme will also show farmers who may be interested in the process how it operates.
“Similar plants are already commonplace in Northern Europe, with more than 5,000 running in Germany, providing benefits for their local communities, and there is no reason why they should not be commonplace here in Britain in the future.”
Earlier this year the company unveiled ambitious expansion plans to build up to nine new plants across the country.
The company, which set-up in February last year with investment from four local private investors, is already building a plant in Warton, near Preston. Planning applications are also being prepared for two more AD plants in Lancashire and Staffordshire.
