Plants share heat

If a waste incineration company gets its way, the heat from its new Suffolk plant will be recycled to help to grow British fruit and vegetables.

Sita UK in Great Blakenham, Ipswich is proposing that the excess heat is channelled to a £30m greenhouse project nearby and could produce 7,500 tonnes of tomatoes a year.

Two local farmers, Stephen Wright and Michael Blakenham known as Sterling Suffolk, have joined with Sita to devise plans to build two large greenhouses.  The farmers own the land between Great Blakenham and Bramford where the greenhouses would be built. 

Sita is currently building the £185m energy-from-waste (EfW) plant which could employ 180 people.  The 269,000 tonnes of rubbish that it will burn per year could also generate enough electricity to power 30,000 homes via the National Grid.  They expect that the project could be up and running by December 2014.

Gabriel Ash is a fan of energy efficiency and its greenhouse heater range includes a low energy eco version costing from just 1p per hour.  Any energy saving ideas are welcomed – just let us know.

More details of Sita’s project are at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-20451249

Author: Robert Smith