Scotland's Green Energy Takes Another Step Forward

There's a quiet revolution happening in a rural corner of Ayrshire, one which will help to heat Scotland's homes and meet our environmental goals. And as we enter the New Year it's just taken a massive step closer to producing enough electricity to power 4,000 homes.

Nestling in a rural setting near Beith, the Barkip Biogas plant is rapidly nearing completion, and despite the recent poor weather, the last few weeks have seen the installation of the very heart of power production at the plant; the massive primary and secondary digesters.

And the revolutionary part…? The Biogas will produce all that energy by using food and other materials that, until now, would have been thrown away..!!

The Barkip Biogas plant is a very different proposition from traditional power plants, as it uses a process known as Anaerobic Digestion to produce electricity from leftover food and other organic materials. It is an incredibly natural method (very similar to how a cow digests its food) so the fuel is not burned but digested by natural microbes instead!

Bobby Gavin, Organic Recycling Account Manager for the William Tracey Group is delighted that the project has taken another huge step closer to completion:

"Anaerobic Digestion is undoubtedly the Scottish Governments preferred solution to convert food to electricity, and with good reason. It's only output is energy and the only by-product is high nutrient fertiliser that can be put straight back onto the land to help produce the food for the future; it really doesn't get much greener than that!"

And Bobby is convinced that opening of Barkip couldn't be happening at a better time for those companies who produce organic wastes:

"This April, the landfill tax will increase to £56 per tonne. Companies who recycle food will have an opportunity to save costs in the face of such increases, so there's now a very real opportunity to reduce waste, produce green energy, and lower their disposal charges; it's just a pity that a Meerkat has already secured the "Simples" catchphrase..!"

The Barkip Biogas facility is being constructed by Luddon Construction on behalf of Scottish & Southern Energy Generation Limited on a William Tracey Group site. It is on target to go-live in March 2011 and will be operated by Zebec Biogas, also a West of Scotland company. With a 75,000 ton capacity the plant will be the largest Anaerobic Digestion plant in the UK, and represents Zero Waste Scotland's largest investment to date in this technology.
 

For more information, interviews or images please contact: Justine Anderson, Group Marketing Manager, the William Tracey Group on 0141 889 3207/ 07812 570 805