Cheshire East Council IVC facility to be powered by renewable energy
| BY WishAgency
Our Cheshire East Council’s state of the art IVC and composting facility is getting ready for renewable energy in the form of solar panels.
The development of a solar farm to supply power to the facility at Leighton Grange is the culmination of a detailed, 3-year vision in partnership with Cheshire East Council. The 4.1 megawatt solar farm will not only help to provide renewable energy to power the composting plant operated by Biowise but will also put green energy back into the national grid, helping to offset a significant amount of the council’s carbon emissions.
The council is set to begin work on the large-scale solar farm, which will generate enough power for about 1,200 houses, on land adjacent to the composting plant to provide renewable energy and reduce carbon emissions.
“To add a carbon neutral source of power to the process by which Cheshire East Council recycles its kitchen and garden waste into PAS100 compost should be congratulated,” commented our Managing Director, Bob Wilkes. “It provides residents with a model of best practice on how to manage local waste and we are delighted to have been able to play our part in that process.”
Cheshire East Council has committed to becoming carbon neutral in its operations by 2025, and in supporting the wider borough to understand and reduce their carbon footprint. The target is based on an assessment of the council’s carbon footprint and covers the emissions that the council has direct control over, including streetlighting, gas and electricity from council-owned buildings, fleet vehicles and business travel.
Councillor Mick Warren, chair of the council’s environment and communities committee, said: “Cheshire East Council is committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2025, and that means reducing emissions that the council has direct control over.”
The facility at Leighton Grange, which became fully operational in June 2020, has the capacity to process up to 75,000 tonnes per annum of food and garden waste. Over 95% of the waste inputs are recycled into quality BSI PAS 100 certified compost for use in horticultural, agricultural and landscaping markets. The remaining, small percentage of process outputs are recycled or sent for energy recovery.
