Ecotricity pushes for clean green gas at home

Using marginal arable farmland around the country, Ecotricity says it could produce biogas for 97 per cent of UK homes, creating up to 150,000 new jobs in the process. However, expanding to this level would involve building around 5,000 grass mills to convert the feed material, scrub the methane, and pump the resulting gas into the grid. In October, Ecotricity received permission to build its first grass mill, located at Sparsholt College in Hampshire.

“Our first Green Gas Mill has just been given the go-ahead, and we hope to build it soon – though that does depend on whether government energy policy will support this simple, benign and abundant energy source,” said Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity.

“Through our research, we’ve found that using grass is a better alternative, and has none of the drawbacks of energy crops, food waste or fracking – in fact, it has no drawbacks at all.”