The Gloucestershire business is building its new £11m “green gas mill” near Reading in Berkshire, with the firm saying it will create 30 jobs and directly contribute £3m into the rural economy.
The mill is scheduled to be fully operational early next year and will be designed to provide gas for 4,000 local homes every year.
Ecotricity, which is run by its founder and chairman of League One football club Forest Green Rovers Dale Vince, said grass provided a “breakthrough alternative” for producing green gas.
It added traditional methods of production involving use of food waste or energy crops which it said posed “sustainability issues and problems with a lack of scale”.
Ecotricity’s green gas mill will be fed by herbal lays, a mix of grass and herbs, sown and grown on farmland next to the plant.
The move comes as the company published a report into the potential for a “national green gas program”, which it said could create 160,000 jobs in the rural economy and contribute £15bn annually.
The report, authored by consultants from Imperial College London, has said there is enough grassland in the UK not involved in food production, to provide gas for all homes.
No comments:
Post a Comment