Skip to content

How Copys Green Farm integrates AD into every part of their business

On the 17th August Thom Koller and I visited Stephen Temple’s on-farm AD plant in Norfolk, which was commissioned in 2010.

The site has a methane from biogas plant generating up to 170kW of electricity for the grid and their own use; the electricity is used on the farm, in 4 houses and for electric cars. Heat from the plant is used for onsite cheese making (which is sold locally in Norfolk) and is very tasty, dairy hot water, drying grains, farm house, office and three nearby cottages. To produce all of this heat, the digester is fed with cattle manure, whey from cheese, fodder beet and maize silage.

We spent a few house at the on farm AD plant and were impressed by the engineering an innovation which Stephen uses on site. Stephen uses his engineering background to develop systems to make it easier to spread digestate and to develop a low maintenance AD plant, for example they have added an additional feeder which feeds slurry into the main feeder which connects to the digester. This has helped to improve the efficiency of the parasitic load and quality of the slurry going into the digester. They also employ a graduate engineer on site and together they are continuing to innovate.

For ADBA, it is useful to visit sites across the UK. It enables us to meet members, and to take time to learn about their AD plant and the opportunities and constraints they have faced throughout the process. It helps us better represent operators with government and regulators. If you’d like to set up a visit or meeting with ADBA’s policy team, please just let us know by contacting:

Emma Thomas, 0203 735 8118

Thom Koller, 020 3176 0592 

Back To Top