Policy

The UK Government wants to see a big increase in the amount of energy the country generates from anaerobic digestion of waste, it said earlier this week.

Anaerobic digestion technologies use enzymes to breakdown all types of biomass including manure, sewage and food waste to produce methane. The methane can then be burned to produce electricity and heat, converted into biofuel or biomethane, which can be fed into the national gas network.

At the new Government’s first Anaerobic Digestion Round Table meeting with industry on Tuesday, the Departments of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) agreed to draw up an action plan.

The plan will assess the economic capacity for anaerobic digestion in the UK and the next steps that the Government and the industry needs to take.

The UK currently produces around 100 million tonnes of waste a year that could be used to generate up to 7% of the country’s 2020 renewable energy target.

“Turning waste into something usable is a no brainer,” says Climate Change Minister Greg Barker. “I want to investigate how we can be far more ambitious in our use of anaerobic digestion.”

The action plan will be the first step in the Government’s commitment to ramp up anaerobic digestion, and will bring in industry, farmers and the financial sector, says Environment Minister Lord Henley.

The move could spark a new wave of anaerobic facilities, especially following the announcement this week that local councils will be able to sell on any electricity they generate through local renewable schemes.

For further information:
www.decc.gov.uk
www.defra.gov.uk/

Related stories:
English local councils free to sell green electricity (7-Jul)
UK gives go ahead to five anaerobic digestion projects (9-Jun 2009)