THE Island’s oldest utility is proposing a new energy future for Jersey – which includes building plants that will turn our food waste and black-bag rubbish into low carbon power.
The modern incarnation of Jersey Gas would like to build an ‘anaerobic digestion plant’ in the Island, a piece of well-established technology which its parent company already owns and operates throughout the UK.
It also believes that a plant using another piece of proven technology – called ‘renewable dimethyl ether’, or ‘rDME’ – could replace the current Energy Recovery Centre, colloquially called the Incinerator, when it reaches the end of its life in 2036.
Graeme Millar, who is chief executive officer of Islands Energy Group, said that Jersey needed a mix of energy sources to keep it resilient, and low-carbon gas, especially if it was produced locally, would be a key component.
“Is there a future for gas in Jersey? The answer is an emphatic yes,” he said. “These technologies are relatively new but they all viable and could be built at a scale suitable to Jersey.”
IEG’s parent company Ancala already runs 20 anaerobic digestion plants in the UK, including one in Basingstoke, where Guernsey’s food waste is sent to.
Mr Millar said one could be built at La Collette for £25m – £30m, which could be funded privately or in partnership with the Government.
The plant would take all of the Island’s food and agricultural waste and, through a fermentation process, turn it onto a number of useful products, including energy in the form of biogas.
This can be used to generate power or it can be upgraded and added to the mains gas network. The plant also produces nutrient-rich ‘digestate’, which can be turned into fertiliser and soil conditioner.
“If we used all the Island’s green waste, the plant would make us pretty much self-sufficient in gas,” said Mr Millar.
He added that another product of the anerobic digestion process was climate-friendly ‘biogenic’ carbon dioxide, which can be captured and could be used, for example, as fertiliser or by the drinks trade.
The second piece of technology, rDME, produces a low-carbon liquid fuel made from household waste, renewable feedstocks like farmyard manure, or captured carbon dioxide.
It is chemically similar to propane and butane, so it behaves in the same way as LPG.
The UK’s first rDME plant – a £150m facility in Teeside – has become fully operational this year.
Mr Millar that conversations with the Government on these two technologies had already started.
He said: “We are an island, and while our utilities do a good job in providing resilient services, that can lead to a false sense of security. Resilience is not to be taken for granted and it makes sense to have gas in the mix.
“There is definitely a future for green gas.”