Stroud based Ecotricity invests £11M in new Reading facility to make gas from grass

Stroud based Ecotricity, the world’s first green energy company, has begun construction of its latest renewable energy innovation - a green gas mill, which will make gas from grass.

It’s first-of-a-kind gas mill is now being built near Reading in Berkshire. Once fully operational in early 2023, it will provide all the gas needs for 4,000 local homes every year, the company said.

Traditional methods of making green gas involve use of food waste or energy crops - both have sustainability issues and problems with a lack of scale. Grass is a breakthrough alternative, says Ecotricity.

Ecotricity’s green gas mill will be fed by herbal leys - a mix of grass and herbs, sown and grown on farmland next to the plant.

Green gas mills do not require agricultural land and do not compete with food production. Costing £11 million to build, Ecotricity’s first green gas mill will create 30 jobs and directly contribute £3 million into the rural economy.

Ecotricity has also released a new white paper on the potential for Green Gas in Britain. Authored by independent academics from Imperial College London Consultants, the report reveals that there is enough grassland in Britain, not involved in food production, to provide gas for all homes. A national program to achieve this would create 160k jobs in the rural economy and contribute £15 billion annually and the UK could make all the gas it needs to home and business use – if meat production was reduced by 10 per cent and land was used to grow grass. Such a reduction would be well under the historical trend and targets set by government advisors to enable transition to net zero

The report also highlights the significant shortcomings of the government’s national air source heat pump roll-out – it’s alternative plan for heating homes without carbon emissions. Such a plan would cost six times as much as a green gas roll out – partly due to the need to triple renewable electricity generation, and significantly upgrade the grid to deliver it. The plan would also require the scrapping of millions of gas devices – boilers and cookers, as well as the UK gas grid. Currently, it costs £8,000 per home to install a heat pump – which also adds more than 40% to the overall energy bill of each household that uses one instead of gas. The report also flags that heat pumps will not work for 20% of British homes at all – while a further 20% of homes will need significant upgrades.