Farmgen completes first phase of £2.5m Biogas scheme

GREEN energy company Farmgen has completed the first phase of development at its new £2.5m project at Warton, near Preston.

The company has started work on two anaerobic digestion tanks which will be fed with crops from nearby fields to create enough biogas to generate 1MW worth of electricity.

Preparatory work on the site to create service roads and storage space for the crops has just been completed.

The farm will remain under the ownership of farmer Jonathan Rigby, who is moving away from dairy farming to produce the necessary crops. The electricity generated will then be sold back to the National Grid by Farmgen.

Farmgen was founded earlier this year by Jonathan’s brother, Simon Rigby, who is a former chief executive of Leeds-based utilities company Spice plc. Mr Rigby stepped down from his role at Spice in February, but retains a minority stake  of just below 9% in the business.

“Renewables and other sources of green energy will play a critical role in providing the country’s power supplies over the next decade,” said Farmgen’s chief operating officer, Ed Cattigan.

“As the country moves over to green energy, as part of the move to a low carbon economy, there is a strong opportunity for many farmers in the UK to create a sustainable and stronger future for themselves by switching to ‘energy farming’.”