The company has produced enough electricity to supply more than 900 homes since installing a high-tech AD plant from EnviTec Biogas UK almost a year ago. The company believes that the investment is on course to pay for itself within eight years 

Managing director Nick Allpress, who runs Allpress Farms in Cambridgeshire alongside brother Patrick, set up Horseway Energy as a separate company in December 2014. He claims that diversification has paid strong dividends for the entire business. “Moving into anaerobic digestion was a big decision for us, but we’ve seen significant benefits in the year since we launched the project.”

Mr Allpress continued, “Our plant generates almost 12,000 kWh of electricity a day – that’s 4.25 million kWh since we first flicked the switch.That means we’re well on course to meet our financial targets and return on capital is running with initial predictions.”

The 2,500-acre Allpress operation produces leeks and onions for supermarkets as well as wheat, maize and sugar beet.

“Our day-to-day activity produces a lot of waste and we wanted to make use of that. We also wanted to diversify, so we saw AD as the perfect fit," Mr Allpress added:

The plant is fed each day with 50 per cent maize and 50 per cent leek and onion waste and the digestate - the organic bi-product of the AD process – is being used as fertiliser.

Mr Allpress commented on the plant’s added benefits: “It’s supplied with waste from our own farm, some of which costs us nothing, and provides us with a fertiliser for our crops which all helps reduce our carbon footprint.

Mike McLaughlin, managing director of EnviTec Biogas UK, said: “It’s great to see the farm making such good use of the waste they were once simply disposing of and equally good to see Horseway Energy exporting so much renewable electricity to the grid.”

A video about the project is available at http://bit.ly/1NkfGmz