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ADBA member Tamar Energy announces first biogas plant

ADBA MEMBER PRESS RELEASE

Tamar Energy, a leading biogas company in the UK focused on generating energy from organic waste matter, has entered into contracts to build its first anaerobic digestion plant at Holbeach Hurn, Lincolnshire in partnership with AH Worth, a family business whose major operating subsidiary is QV Foods, a multi site produce packing and marketing operation. The plant is expected to be operational by Q3 2013 and to produce 11 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year.

This will be the first AD plant to be built by Tamar Energy following the £65 million equity financing completed in February 2012. The plant is located at one of the top-four potato processing sites in the UK supplying produce to leading national retailers. The project will harness significant industrial and ecological synergies. Discarded organic material from the packing lines and storage facilities will be diverted to the AD plant instead of being sent long distances for stock feed, for composting or to landfill. Approximately 500 personnel work at the site, and most of the power demand at the site will be met by the AD plant resulting in better resilience and a cost saving. Other benefits include reduction of waste management charges, organic fertiliser production on site, energy recovery from waste, and process heat available on site.

In total the amount of feedstock to be treated in the plant will be approximately 36,000 tonnes per year. The plant will have an electrical output of 1.5 MW.

QV Foods will harness the large majority of the electricity production, with any surplus being delivered as green electricity to the National Grid. The output is equivalent to the yearly consumption of approximately 3,000 households.

Duncan Worth, Chairman of QV Foods said:

This is the culmination of considerable effort. The construction of an AD plant at our site makes sense for AH Worth and QV Foods on both an economic and an environmental level and is part of our business’s long term sustainability planning. The site prepares potatoes and vegetables for leading national retailers including Asda, Aldi and Marks & Spencer and we are delighted to be able not only to reduce our own carbon footprint, but also to be able to demonstrate how AD could positively impact their carbon reduction goals.

Alan Lovell, Chairman and Chief Executive of Tamar Energy:

This will be the first of many Tamar plants in partnership with the food manufacturing sector. Tamar Energy is well capitalised by strategic and institutional investors, with a pure focus on producing energy from organic waste, rather than as an adjunct to a waste management business.

Fredrik Adams, co-founder of Tamar, led the development of the plant from inception to the conclusion of the contract negotiations. Having successfully delivered this key project for Tamar, he is leaving the business to progress under its new management team. Tamar wishes Fredrik every success for the future.

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