Lodge Farm, home to a fre-energy AD system, is the first in the country to have received its Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) payment from the Government.
RHI payments are made to organisations producing and using their own thermal energy on site; Lodge Farm is using the energy to heat its large, 5-bedroomed farmhouse, the fre-energy offices and its engineering and production facilities.
The fre-energy Digester generates a reliable and constant production of energy 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with a generation capacity of 160kw of electricity and 200kw of heat. With the capacity to process 33 tonnes of farm slurry each day, this plant is unique in being able to continually process grit-laden farm waste materials, which would otherwise have to be disposed of.
Richard Tomlinson, fifth generation family farmer at Lodge Farm and Managing Director of fre-energy, commented: “Although AD plants are in use on thousands of farms elsewhere in Europe, none of these plants have been designed to deal with the problems associated with processing animal waste and many are therefore beginning to fail. As farmers ourselves, we have invented technology that is proven to work on farms and have to date installed plants at 3 further farms in the UK.”
Richard continued: “On-farm AD has enormous potential to deliver renewable energy from bio-gas and to lessen the carbon footprint of farming, whilst at the same time reducing greenhouse gas pollution from organic wastes and returning valuable nutrients back to the land. Fre-energy is in a unique position to play a major role in transforming the UK agricultural and environmental industries.”
For media coverage on this News Release please go to:
http://www.ciwm-journal.co.uk/archives/6316
http://www.farmingfutures.org.uk/blog/farm-ad-farm-receives-uk%E2%80%99s-first-rhi-payment