What are the benefits?
Creating renewable energy from farm waste
The AD plant is an important link between farm waste management and sustainable energy production here at Greendale. Dung from our cattle provides an ongoing source of organic waste, and we’re able to harvest and store rainwater run-off from the roofs of our farm buildings, which means we can ‘feed’ the AD plant with a steady supply of liquidised organic matter. This in turn means the AD plant can be relied on to produce a consistent supply of biogas and therefore electricity; unlike the energy we get from our solar panels, it’s not affected by the weather. Biogas is also easier to store than solar energy, ready to be used when needed.
We re-use the byproduct (digestate) from the AD plant. Some of it is used to feed the AD plant again, and some of it is spread on the fields as nutrient-packed organic fertiliser (approved by the Organic Farmers & Growers Association) to support the crops we grow for our cattle. We also package and sell this excellent fertiliser for commercial use. AD benefits Greendale directly by helping us to manage farm waste while generating renewable energy for us to use; it also has wider benefits, as Willowglen’s excess energy output is sold to the National Grid, helping to take us all another step away from the use of fossil fuels. In addition, the methane gas that would naturally have been produced by the breakdown of unused cattle dung is instead contained in the AD plant and used as biogas, keeping it out of the environment.