IN your issue dated June 10 you asked for views on the planning application for the Crediton biogas plant, an anaerobic digester (AD). 

The plant would produce gas to inject into the gas mains.  To do so it would consume about 35,000te of crops every year, requiring several square miles of farmland to grow the crops. 

In an era of food and fuel poverty and food banks, is it a good idea to turn crops into energy?

Let’s look at Government policy on ADs and its recent statements.  In order to keep energy bills under control the Government is reducing the amount of subsidy paid to ADs and is putting a cap on the total amount of subsidies. 

It has said: “It is Government policy that the primary purpose of agricultural land should be for growing food,” and “It is not our intention to support an AD industry which has a high dependency on crops, so we need to consider ways of ensuring that AD installations operating on farms are based on the processing of waste and residues. 

“We propose to introduce feedstock restrictions under the FITs scheme to minimise the use of crops.” 

With about 80 per cent of the feedstock going into the proposed AD being crops, this proposal conflicts with Government policy.

Furthermore the Government is concerned about the sustainability of ADs, because more energy can be used in the fossil fuels used to build and operate an AD and to grow and transport the crops and dispose of the digestate than is contained in the gas produced.

Dr Phillip Bratby

CPRE Devon