The ‘Meet the Generators’ national campaign is celebrating the successes of independent renewable energy generators from across the UK. As part of its short film series, the campaign featured the Fre-energy Wrexham farm, which produces 1.5GWh of green energy a year from its anaerobic digester.
In 2021, the Good Energy network of 1,700 generator sites produced 698GWh of green power, which is the equivalent to powering all the homes in Manchester for more than a year, and contributed to customers saving more than 100,000 tonnes of carbon emissions.
To produce its renewable energy, the Fre-energy farm heats manure, waste crops and food waste in a sealed tank to break materials down and produce biogas. The gas is then used to power a generator that provides electricity and heat, and the ‘soup’ leftover in the heating tanks is used as fertiliser on the farm.
The Fre-energy farm uses roughly 40% of the energy it anaerobically creates, while the remainder is sold back to Good Energy.
Fre-energy managing director Denise Nicholls said: “When you start thinking about waste as a resource, it completely reframes the question of what to do with it.”
“Anaerobic digestion is very similar to composting but without the oxygen. You put the waste in a large tin can, you heat it and then collect the gas to convert it into useable energy. The added bonus is that the nutrients are recycled back out onto the land so it’s an absolutely superb ‘closed loop’ cycle.”
Good Energy chief executive Nigel Pocklington added: “Fre-energy are inspirational and deserve to be congratulated on their achievements. We are proud to be working with them, and we hope their story will encourage others to generate their own power and help to tackle the climate crisis.”
The Fre-energy campaign film is available to view at: www.goodenergy.co.uk/learn/generator-stories.
