Hilary Benn has announced a £10 million fund to establish several commercial-scale anaerobic digestion plants to demonstrate the technology to potential investors.

I am really keen to try and make sure that agricultural feed stock and food waste can be treated in the same place by getting farmers and local councils to work together.

 
Hilary Benn

The Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs made the announcement on Monday to the Centenary Conference of the National Farmers' Union, expressing his hope that farmers will take a major role in the project.

He stressed the opportunities that could be gained by local authorities working closely with farmers in AD plants, to divert both agricultural wastes and food waste from landfill.

Mr Benn, whose Department last year oversaw a new English Waste Strategy that identified anaerobic digestion as a favoured technology to treat food waste, said there was "a lot of potential" in the process.

He pointed to its production of renewable energy, reduction in uncontrolled methane emissions from agriculture and the diversion of organic waste - "especially food waste" - from landfill.

The Secretary of State said: "Those who are working on this already have told us that we need to show more people this technology operating if we are to get more investment. Demonstration plants are a great way to do this."

He said Defra would provide £10 million for "a number of commercial-scale anaerobic digestion demonstration plants". The funding is to come from the Environmental Transformation Fund - the fund created by the Treasury to support low-carbon technologies in the wake of the 2006 Stern Review of the economics of climate change.

Mr Benn added: "I am really keen to try and make sure that agricultural feed stock and food waste can be treated in the same place by getting farmers and local councils to work together."

Details on the £10 million fund would be released by Defra soon, according to the Secretary of State.

The UK has a handful of anaerobic digestion facilities that accept municipal food waste, including the Greenfinch plant in Shropshire, Biffa's plant in Leicestershire, the Biogen plant in Bedfordshire and the Earth Tech plant in the Western Isles.

There are also commercial waste-only plants already in operation, such as the large Summerleaze facility in Devon as well as smaller farm-scale plants, including those in farms around Dumfries.

Wicks

This week's NFU conference at London's Hilton Hotel also saw the energy minister Malcolm Wicks highlighting the potential for anaerobic digestion facilities as renewable energy "micro-generators" for farmers.

Mr Wicks said at a local level individual farms and rural communities would be able to use facilities "to make a tangible contribution to reducing carbon dioxide emissions and tackling climate change".

The minister pointed to the changes in the government's subsidy programme for green energy, the Renewables Obligation, underway through the Energy Bill currently going through Parliament, saying the revised Obligation would give more support to anaerobic digestion.

Referring to the current anaerobic digestion storyline on BBC Radio 4's The Archers, Mr Wicks told his agricultural audience: "This is a win-win situation for both rural communities and the UK's fight against climate change. For example, I am reliably informed that if Adam and Debbie from The Archers are able to export electricity from their proposed anaerobic digestion plant to the Grid, they will receive the top level of support through the reform of the Renewables Obligation."