Government turns to manure power

The widespread deployment of anaerobic digestion technologies across the UK's farming sector could generate enough heat and electricity to power two million homes, cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the process.

That is the conclusion of a new report from the Department for the Environment Farming and Rural Affairs into the viability of anaerobic digestion systems to be unveiled today at the National Farmers Union (NFU) conference in Birmingham.

Anaerobic digestors work like small-scale landfill sites, trapping methane from waste organic matter, such as slurry, manure and food waste, that can then be burnt off to produce heat and electricity or converted into biofuel, while also producing a nutrient rich digestate that can be used as a fertiliser.

Advocates of anaerobic digestors have long suggested that they should be installed by farmers, arguing that they would not only help cut greenhouse gas emissions but also provide farmers with a sustainable and profitable means of processing waste slurry and manure.

Speaking at the NFU conference, farming minister Jane Kennedy called on the agricultural sector to step up efforts to deploy a technology that the government report indicated will offer a "true solution" to the problem of organic waste being sent to landfill.

"We're producing more organic waste in this country than we can handle – more than 12 million tonnes of food waste a year – and farmers know too well the challenges of managing manure and slurry," she said. "This material could produce enough heat and power to run more than two million homes, helping to prevent dangerous climate change by providing a renewable energy source as well as reducing our reliance on landfill."

She also said that to help support the NFU's target to install 1,000 on-farm AD plants by 2020, the government would launch a new task force, to be chaired by Steve Lee, chief executive of the Chartered Institution for Waste Management, which will work on an implementation plan designed to help accelerate the deployment of anaerobic digestors.