Standard content for Members only

To continue reading this article, please login to your Utility Week account, Start 14 day trial or Become a member.

If your organisation already has a corporate membership and you haven’t activated it simply follow the register link below. Check here.

Become a member

Start 14 day trial

Login Register

Prince Charles opens groundbreaking biogas-to-grid plant at Poundbury

A biogas plant that will feed into the gas network on land owned by the Prince of Wales' estate in Dorset officially opens on Wednesday.

The plant, sited on Duchy of Cornwall land just outside Prince Charles’ village of Poundbury, is the first commercial scale scheme to inject biogas into the grid. 


Using anaerobic digestion to break down organic waste from nearby chocolate, potato and cereal factories, the plant could provide gas for around 4,000 homes during the winter and up to 56,000 homes during the summer. 

The anaerobic digester, owned and run by JV Energen, is expected to process around 41,000 tonnes of maize, grass silage and food waste and generate more than 3 million cubic metres of methane a year.  Scotia Gas Networks was contracted to clean up the biogas for injection into the grid


The plant’s developers hope the project will provide a model that can be replicated around the country.