Matt Hancock MP, Minister of State for Business and Enterprise and Minister of State for Energy, today visited MWH Treatment’s Bio Power Plant in Tyseley, Birmingham to mark one year since the landmark project’s groundbreaking.

The plant is the first of its kind in the UK and it will be supplied with approximately 67,000 tonnes of wood waste secured under a long term sustainable contract with a local supplier. It is forecast to save around 107,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per annum and produce enough electricity to supply the equivalent of more than 17,000 homes a year.

A major programme of investment in renewable energy by Westward Housing has resulted in a first for social housing thanks to a pioneering system devised by heating firm Kensa Heat Pumps.

Croft House in Holsworthy, North Devon, is the first housing association scheme in the UK to be retrofitted with Kensa’s innovative “ground source heat network” system and has received support funding through a combination of the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) and a Ready for Retrofit grant.

Kensa Heat Pumps has successfully completed a substantial programme of renewable heating upgrades in partnership with four social housing providers using the Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP) funding stream and Domestic RHI, resulting in tenant running costs being halved.

Thanks to successful joint bids for government RHPP funding with ground source heat pump manufacturer Kensa Heat Pumps, Westward Housing, Shropshire Rural Housing Association (SRHA), Ocean Housing, and South Holland District Council are all reporting reduced tenant running costs and energy savings, following the completion of an ambitious programme of retrofit renewable heating installations, covering 125 social housing properties throughout Shropshire, Devon, Cornwall and Lincolnshire.

Award-winning British company, Clearfleau, UK market leaders in industrial anaerobic digestion (AD) for on-site renewable energy generation, reveals energy output results for its plant built for leading food sector client, global food and beverage supplier Nestlé, one year after commissioning.

The on-site bio-energy plant was designed and built by Clearfleau for Nestlé's Fawdon confectionery factory, near Newcastle. The financial and environmental benefits from Clearfleau's plant are contributing to Nestlé's efforts to develop environmentally-sustainable manufacturing at Fawdon, as a beacon site for the overall organisation.