Transition Lavenham
Working For A Sustainable Future
Good News for once is no exaggeration!!!
Transition Lavenham has won a grant award to consider the feasibility of developing an
anaerobic digester in the vicinity of Lavenham. The proposition is simple - food waste is
converted into energy – no more landfill.
Transition Lavenham is a registered Community Interest Company, which exists to benefit
the local community and is a member of the Transition movement. The Transition
movement is a community-based response to the twin challenges of peak oil and climate
change. Its premise is that communities must do something for themselves to
accommodate these changes.
The award was made by the Rural Community Energy Fund (RCEF), which supports rural
communities in England to develop renewable energy projects to deliver economic and
social benefits to the community and reduce dependence on fossil fuels. RCEF is being
delivered by WRAP on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(Defra) and Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC).
The initial grant will pay for investigations into the feasibility of an anaerobic digester to
create renewable energy from food waste. Such a facility would turn organic waste from
stale sandwiches to vegetable peelings collected from households and commercial premises
into green energy. Anaerobic Digestion is a natural process that breaks down almost all
organic matter into biogas which can fuel an electricity generator or be processed for
injection into the gas grid. The digestate, left after the biogas is produced, can be used as a
nutrient rich fertiliser.
Transition Lavenham is delighted to have appointed locally based Farm Renewables Ltd to
carry out the feasibility study. Their lead consultant on this project Nick McAllister has
worked with and advised a wide range of rural businesses and local community
organisations on solar and Anaerobic Digestion projects. These include arranging the
installation of small scale solar arrays on farm roofs across Suffolk to working with the
1.4MW Anaerobic Digestion facility at Symonds Farm near Bury St Edmunds.
Carroll Reeve, chair of Transition Lavenham said, “This is a really exciting chance for us to
access expert advice to investigate a way in which we can develop a renewable energy
project which provides real benefits to local people, while allowing us to make a positive
impact on tackling climate change.”
Ends
Editors Notes:
For more information go to www.transitionlavenham.co.uk and
www.farmrenewables.co.uk
About Farm Renewables:
Farm Renewables is a Renewable Energy Consultancy with significant experience of
Anaerobic Digestion, Development of Renewable Energy projects, organic waste
management and Agriculture, bringing together over 60 years of experience in relevant
fields.
Recent projects related to Anaerobic Digestion include:
• Producing a feasibility study for a 1.4MW AD plant in Bury St Edmunds for which we
then secured over £700,000 in grant funding. The plant is now fully operational.
• Producing a feasibility study for a 1.5MW AD plant at Stoneleigh Park in
Warwickshire. The planning application for the site has now been submitted.
• Winning planning for a 0.5MW plant on farms in Herefordshire and West Sussex.
• Preparing planning for a 1MW Ad plant in Herefordshire
• Securing £10,000 in grant funding to evaluate a potential project related to the growing
of Algae on digestate.
Rural Community Energy Fund (RCEF)
RCEF is a £15 million programme, jointly funded by the Department for Environment, Food
and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) and
delivered by WRAP. It supports rural communities in England to develop renewable energy
projects which provide economic and social benefits to the community.
For more information on RCEF, visit www.wrap.org.uk/renewables
WRAP
WRAP’s vision is a world in which resources are used sustainably. Our mission is to
accelerate the move to a sustainable resource-efficient economy through re-inventing how
we design, produce and sell products; re-thinking how we use and consume products; and redefining what is possible through recycling and re-use.
Find out more at www.wrap.org.uk
Contacts
Transition Lavenham
Carroll Reeve - 01787 247674 - ca.reeve@btinternet.com
John Busby – 01284 830138 - johnbusbyltd@hotmail.com
Farm Renewables
Nick McAllister 07812 987507 - nick.mcallister@farmrenewables.co.uk