Plans submitted for one of UK’s first green energy generating plants  (posted 09/07/2007)

A planning application has been officially submitted to build one of the UK’s first green energy generating plants in Dorset.

Eco Composting (Eco) want to build the £7 million biomass generating station on its existing composting and wood recycling site at Parley, on the outskirts of Bournemouth.

The 25,000 tonne capacity facility would be capable of generating 2.7MW of electricity a year.

The electricity would be sent to the National Grid at nearby Redhill and be enough to power about 5,000 local homes.

Biomass plants were highlighted in last year’s Stern Report on Global Warming as a way of tackling climate change.

They burn wood products but in a way that is carbon neutral and, therefore, does not contribute towards global warming.

Eco’s biomass generator would be fuelled by wood taken by the public to household recycling centres and which already arrives at the Parley site to be chipped. The company also plans to grow willow to augment the fuel supply.

Trelawney Dampney, Eco’s Managing Director, said that since the company’s plans first went out for local consultation last year the reaction had been “overwhelmingly positive.”

He added: “Groups such as Friends of the Earth back biomass plants because they are green-friendly and provide ‘clean’ power.

“Currently there is only one other biomass plant operating in the UK although a number are in the pipeline and they have been operating in Europe for five years. They make environmental, and economic, sense,”

The planning application has been lodged with Dorset County Council with regulatory consents expected to take up to a year.

If permission is granted, Eco’s biomass plant could be up and running by 2009.

ENDS

Picture caption: Trelawney Dampney: “Environmental and economic sense.”

Editor’s Note: Founded in 1994, Eco Composting is one of the UK’s leading organics recycling firms, annually processing 120,000 tonnes of material on its 14-acre site at Parley, Dorset. End products include turf, enriched topsoil, compost and woodchip. Eco employs 23 staff and recorded a £3.5m turnover in the year to December 31, 2006.

For more information please contact Trelawney Dampney, Managing Director, or Andy Hill, Sales and Marketing Director, Eco Composting, on 01202 593601 or Andrew Diprose, PR Account Director, Deep South Media on 01202 534487.