Choose Ludlow for green energy plant - councillor

Ludlow was a good destination to grow the industry, councillor Andy Boddington said

Building an energy-from-waste plant in Ludlow would support jobs and utilise people's skills in the town, a councillor has said.

A £2m plan for Shropshire Council to develop a "carbon-saving pyrolysis plant" was approved last month but the location was not decided.

Councillor Andy Boddington said it should be in Ludlow after the town previously had an anaerobic digester.

Shrewsbury and Bridgnorth are the other two areas being considered.

The facility is expected to more than halve the council's carbon footprint, bring in extra income and provide green energy to local businesses.

It would work by processing green waste - potentially wood and garden waste - and leave behind a versatile, carbon-storing material called biochar, Mr Boddington said.

The biochar produced can be used to improve soil quality on farmland, prevent pollutants entering rivers, and help create new buildings and roads.

The anaerobic digester - which broke down leftover food into compost and biogas which was burned to produce heat and electricity - closed in 2012.

The income the council expected to generate from the new facility - through gate fees operator Veolia would have to pay to process the green waste, plus the sale of the biochar, heat, electricity and carbon credits - meant it would have effectively paid itself off in six years, councillors heard last month.

'Win win'

"It's win-win technology really", Mr Boddington said.

"We have the skills in Ludlow... the anaerobic digester experts are still here and we want to build on that here and grow the industry.

"We want the jobs. It's deeply rural here and attracting businesses is needed."

The volume of green waste Shropshire Council collected from households and its own countryside sites and roadside verges, meant there was potential to build more pyrolysis plants across the county, councillors said at their meeting on 22 September.

Deputy council leader Ian Nellins, cabinet member for climate change and the environment, said the removal of thousands of tonnes of biomass each year was "currently a financial burden" so councillors needed to consider greenhouse gas removal methods which the plant offered.