The water company has planted willow and maize at its Leigh wastewater treatment works as part of a trial to get more use out of its land by generating renewable energy and helping control costs for customers, which it is now expanding out to other sites over the coming months.
Willow trees are fast growing and, once dried, the wood can be sold as fuel for biomass boilers. Maize can be digested and used to generate biogas which in turn can be used as fuel to generate renewable electricity and heat.
UU’s business growth strategy manager Sian Taylor, said: “Around the region we’ve got plenty of land that’s potentially suitable, and we’ve got the fertiliser in the form of the biosolids that are produced by the treatment process.”
She added that a contractor with expertise in energy crops was brought in to identify the most suitable locations on UU owned land and the trial is being used to see whether the crops would grow normally.
Taylor said: “The maize has been doing well but we’ve had some problems with fast-growing weeds affecting the willows. It’s a learning curve and we’re picking up some good lessons on how we can improve.”