Anaerobic Digester Site Tours
People living in and around Dummer, Hampshire (RG23) are being invited to a special open day to discover for themselves how a new facility is turning food waste into renewable energy for 3,000 homes.
An open day is taking place on Saturday 27 September 2014 between 9am and 12 noon, to give people living locally an insight into the innovative process of anaerobic digestion (AD) at the Tamar Energy AD facility. People will be given a guided tour of the different stages of the process, and places need to be pre-booked either online at www.basingstokeAD.com, by email basingstoke@tamar-energy.com, or by Freephone on 0800 840 1229.
The Tamar Energy AD facility, close to the M3 south-west of Basingstoke, takes approximately 30,000 tonnes of food waste per year, much of which would otherwise end up in landfill. This ranges from contents of households’ green bins to supermarket waste unfit for consumption, and is energy rich and contains valuable nutrients.
The facility digests the food waste anaerobically (in the absence of oxygen) to produce 1.5 MW of renewable energy, enough for more than 3,000 homes. It also produces a nutrient rich biofertiliser which has been used on the local estate lands. It is one of over 100 operational AD facilities currently in the UK.
Formed in February 2012, Tamar Energy is one of the UK’s leading AD companies, with three operational AD facilities, two further AD facilities under construction and a pipeline of other projects in development.
The Basingstoke facility was Tamar Energy’s first and began generating renewable energy in December 2013. Tamar Energy was recently awarded ‘British Renewable Energy Company 2014’ by industry body the Renewable Energy Association.
Mat Stewart, Tamar Energy’s Director of Operations said, “Although widespread in Europe, anaerobic digestion facilities are still fairly new to most people here in the UK. We’ve generated thousands of units of green electricity at our Basingstoke facility in its first six months, and we’d like to give the local community a chance to find out first hand how this natural process works.”
He added, “Places are limited and must be pre-booked, as we have a strict health and safety policy at all our sites. If the day proves popular, we’ll certainly look to run tours again in the future”.
The site will cease operations for the day so no specific protective equipment will be necessary for visitors, beyond sensible footwear. Further information about the facility and the open day, along with preregistration, can be found on the facility’s website at www.BasingstokeAD.com , or by Freephone 0800 890 1224.
