How could a cow help to heat your home?

Robin Pagnamenta

Families will heat their homes using gas brewed from animal manure, food waste and sewage sludge, under plans to be unveiled by the Government today.
The plans include financial incentives to encourage utilities to build fermentation plants that process waste material into “biogas” for injection into the national gas network. National Grid, the network’s operator, has estimated that biogas could supply 18 per cent of total UK demand for gas, which is approximately 100 billion cubic metres a year.
The Government’s Renewable Heat Incentive will set a premium that energy companies will be paid for producing biogas from 2011, potentially flushing out a wave of investment in the industry.
Centrica, the owner of British Gas, is studying plans for a biogas plant. A spokesman for the group, which has 16 million British customers, said: “We potentially see production of biogas that can be injected into the grid as a very important form of renewable heat in future. The economics of building the plants will obviously depend on the incentives being set at the right level.”

E.ON and Scottish and Southern Energy are also understood to be exploring biogas projects. A company called Farmgen last month unveiled a £30 million investment programme to develop 1,000 small-scale biogas plants in the UK. Muirhall Energy has announced plans for a biogas plant in Edinburgh that will process 40,000 tonnes of the city’s food waste every year.
Biomethane produced from waste material is big business in Sweden and Germany. About 15,000 cars in Sweden are fuelled by biogas, which is available in filling stations. More than 3,700 biogas plants operate in Germany, employing 10,000 people.