National awards for intelligent green energy schemes
28 April 2009
Electricity schemes preventing release of greenhouse gasses and reducing energy bills prove there is more to green electricity than wind turbines
Electricity schemes preventing release of greenhouse gasses and reducing energy bills prove there is more to green electricity than wind turbines
Tomato grower turned electricity maker Guy and Wright is the latest green energy uk generator partner to scoop a top industry award. The nursery was presented with Grower of the Year's business initiative award for creating renewable electricity from the process of growing tomatoes. green energy uk then facilitates the electricity’s transition into the national grid, where it is used by homes and businesses across the UK. The tomato grower is among a number of green energy uk generator partners who are creating electricity from unusual sources such as pig manure, construction waste and waste vegetable oil.
green energy uk founder and chief executive, Doug Stewart, is pleased his generator partners are winning awards. Doug says: “John and Caroline Jones, who run Guy and Wright, are recycling rotting fruit and vegetables which would otherwise sit in landfill and release methane into the atmosphere. They are using this to produce heat for the greenhouses, food for their tomatoes and renewable electricity that we can put into the national grid. In this process even the emissions are absorbed by the tomatoes plants. It is a fantastic example of innovation.” He continues: “John and Caroline chose to do this for environmental reasons and have invested more than £600,000 of their own money into the project - they really deserve the award.”
Each day at the nursery in Green Tye, Herts, up to 50 tonnes of organic waste will be chopped up and put into six 400-tonne underground anaerobic digesters. Inside these digesters, micro-organisms break down the waste and produce a biogas that is burnt to heat the greenhouses and power the turbines to create the electricity green energy uk puts into the national grid. The resulting CO2 exhaust from burning the biogas is pumped into the greenhouse and acts as a feed to encourage bigger and tastier tomatoes.
Guy and Wright’s success follows fellow green energy uk generator partner Aberdeen City Council’s double win at the recent UK Housing Awards. The council was recognised for a project that has reduced fuel bills for residents of 700 flats by 80% by supplying them with cheaper heat and hot water created using cleaner, greener Combined Heat and Power. The project also produces green electricity which green energy uk is able to pass on to its customers. Doug Stewart says: “We have built green energy uk on the principle of supplying electricity from innovative projects that have multiple far reaching benefits. Be it generators like Guy and Wright, who are doing the environment a favour and eliminating methane from entering the atmosphere by recycling wasted materials into heat and electricity, or examples like Aberdeen City Council, who in addition to producing green electricity has eased the cost of energy for its residents.”
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