The plant, sited on Duchy of Cornwall land just outside Prince Charles’ village of Poundbury, is the first commercial scale scheme to inject biogas into the grid.
Using anaerobic digestion to break down organic waste from nearby chocolate, potato and cereal factories, the plant could provide gas for around 4,000 homes during the winter and up to 56,000 homes during the summer.
The anaerobic digester, owned and run by JV Energen, is expected to process around 41,000 tonnes of maize, grass silage and food waste and generate more than 3 million cubic metres of methane a year. Scotia Gas Networks was contracted to clean up the biogas for injection into the grid
The plant’s developers hope the project will provide a model that can be replicated around the country.