East Devon Anaerobic Digestion plant providing local solution to UK energy crisis 

At a time when gas and electricity prices for domestic and business users are at an all-time high and the UK’s reliance on imported fossil fuels is now more prominent than ever, Gorst Energy is providing local green energy to Exeter and East Devon.

Located in Clyst St Mary, the Anaerobic Digestion (AD) facility works by processing sustainable energy crops and animal manures to produce biogas which is then used to generate renewable gas or electricity. This is injected directly into the main power lines serving the City of Exeter, helping supply thousands of local homes and businesses every year – something the company has been doing since 2015.

Darren Stockley, Managing Director for Gorst Energy, comments: “Recent events in Russia have highlighted that the UK is not energy self-sufficient and the government are prioritising an energy strategy. We believe locally produced, renewable energy providers like Gorst Energy have a crucial part to play in this. 

Fuel poverty is reported to be reaching record high levels, and in the coming months many families will be struggling to pay their energy bills. Gorst sells its energy on forward contracts which are substantially below the below the price to the consumer. This helps to eliminate the price swings that are driven by international markets. 

Darren adds: “AD provides a constant supply and is not dependent on the sun shining or the wind blowing like other renewable technologies. Equally, it provides renewable gas where as other technologies only provide electric. It’s for this reason that the European Commission has specifically highlighted AD as part of a key element of its plan to remove dependency on Russian fossil fuels.”

The plant currently uses pig manure and sustainable crops supplied by local farmers. The energy produced powers over 2,300 homes with renewable gas and over 900 homes with renewable electricity, making it one of the biggest renewable energy providers in the city. 

Good news for the City – the renewables company has plans in the near future to increase output which could result in an additional 630 homes being powered by renewable electricity and a further 1160 being powered by renewable gas. 

“We urgently need environmentally friendly, non-fossil fuel, carbon reducing British Energy. The Gorst facility ticks all of these boxes and its happening right now in Exeter and East Devon,” says Darren.

As well as supplying renewable energy to the region, the company also has another significant ‘green’ credential.

Darren explains: “The additional benefit of our plant is a bi-product called digestate. This is an organic fertiliser which we supply to our local farmers. The organic fertiliser replaces artificial fertilisers much of which originate from Russia and the Ukraine. Artificial fertilisers have a really high carbon footprint and have significantly increased in price since the Russian invasion..”

Troy Stuart, Director of Stuart Partners Limited who uses the organic fertiliser supplied by Gorst Energy on his crops shared “The benefit of the digestate is we're getting better crops - we’re not just using it to grow our crops for Gorst either we’re using it for other crops and our grassland. It’s a real benefit to cut down our bag fertiliser by half. It’s been a very good relationship and it’s local. All the farms are very local to the plant, acting as a very good circular economy.’’ 

Condate Biogas, a North Devon based sister plant of Gorst Energy, has recently featured heavily in the news across the UK after sharing how the plant is responsible for powering the whole of South Molton with 100% renewable gas and 40% renewable electricity. 

Gorst Energy believes the generation of locally produced renewable energy provides an important part in helping solve the current energy crisis as well as contributing to future UK energy resilience. 

“AD offers a means of helping to hit the Government’s Net Zero target by 2050 and helping Exeter become one of the greenest cities in the UK,” added Darren.

For more information about Gorst Energy and AD, visit https://ixoraenergy.co.uk/gorst-energy