The future of the Anaerobic Digestion (AD) and biogas industry in the UK was tackled at a two-day conference in Birmingham.
Organised by The Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association (ADBA), the aim of UK AD & Biogas 2010 was to raise awareness of the opportunities for AD production in the UK to potential suppliers such as farmers and decision makers from the Government. The event featured over 70 exhibitors with seminars, workshops and a main conference with speakers from British Gas, Defra, Ofgem, WRAP and Severn Trent Water.
Introducing the conference, Lord Redesdale, ADBA chairman, said: "AD has come of age and with the Coalition Government's joint agreement on energy production targets we can mature this industry over the next few years. How we present AD to the public is key - we should perhaps even look at renaming it."
AD is the only renewable energy source specifically mentioned in the Coalition Agreement. It is a natural process which converts organic matter such as food and farm waste into a form which can be used to generate energy.
The solid residue, called digestate, can be recycled by the farmer as a fertiliser. The liquid which remains can be used to irrigate otherwise dry farmland.
NFU Vice President Gwyn Jones, who has an AD plant on his farm in West Sussex, was also there to showcase the potential for farmers. Using his own experiences, he outlined the challenges and benefits of on-farm AD plants. He said: “AD is still seen as a 'novel industry'. Success depends on luck such as connection to the grid, planning, permits and language barriers to bring in equipment and maintain it. However, given the chance, farmers can produce both food and energy. We have an extra person employed now and have halved fertiliser costs."
David Kennedy, chief executive of The Committee on Climate Change, spoke about the science of climate change. He said: "We have an opportunity if we act now to mitigate effects of climate change. The science is robust and we have the opportunity to build a green economy within the UK.
"We need a step-change. It's going to take a different set of policies to translate the Government's good intentions into action. The renewable heat incentives (RHI), feed-in tariffs (FiTs) and carbon reduction commitments should help with this. It's an ambitious target for 2020."
There is still long way to go in terms of making AD an accessible business opportunity. There is the problem of feed stock – why build a plant with nothing to power it? The audience was given an insight into how much food waste could be used as a supplement to farm waste and how farms could work together as co-operatives to supply one plant.
Key NFU demands for developing the potential of AD
- Emergency review of the FIT for smaller on-farm AD - everyone agrees this should be about 18-22p/kWh for plants below 250 kilowatts capacity
- Urgent revision by OFGEM of the connections regime for distributed energy - bringing about fairer, faster, cheaper access to the electricity distribution network
Many speakers agreed that the three energy priorities now were: security of supply, cost and climate change.
Germany leads the way with biomethane production across over 5,000 plants employing more than 10,000 people. The industry is worth a staggering 10 billion Euros to their economy every year.
Mark Bugler from British Gas spoke about how biogas can be put into the national gas grid. He said this was the most exciting time since the 1960s 'gas revolution' which saw households convert to central heating. British Gas have five AD projects, two of which are farm and food waste, including a dairy. Mr Bugler said: "Biogas can help the gas industry be more economical and help keep the costs down for our customers."
Severn Trent Water was another utility provider who was embracing AD to help reach its renewable energy targets. An AD plant at a farm run by the water company in Nottinghamshire was now operational and expected to produce enough energy to reach 1.6% of their renewables target.
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