First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones has today (15 April) opened Prosiect GwyriAD, Wales’s ‘first purpose-built anaerobic digestion (AD) facility’.

The £6 million plant, situated at the former Llwyn Isaf landfill in Gwynedd, has been financed by Gwynedd Council, energy company Biogen, equity firm Iona Capital and the Welsh Government, who put forward almost £2.4 million for the project.

It forms part of the Welsh Government’s renewable energy policy, which aims to produce 15 per cent of electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

Officially opening the plant today, Jones said: “Prosiect GwyriAD demonstrates what can be achieved by the Welsh Government working closely with the local council and the project team.

“Wales is the only country in the UK with a national programme to address household food waste, and we have provided leadership to local government and the market with our ambitions, as well as significant funding.”

AD process

The plant will annually process around11,000 tonnes of commercial and household food waste collected by Gwynedd Council, which is stored in sealed, temperature-controlled tanks. Whilst decomposing, naturally-occurring bacteria in the food waste produces biogas. This biogas is captured and used as a fuel in a combined heat and power engine to produce 3,500 megawatt hours of renewable electricity for the national grid, as well as heat (used in the AD plant) and a biofertiliser for crops.

Jones commented: “Thanks to Prosiect GwyriAD, 11,000 tonnes of waste a year will avoid landfill, where it would generate greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, the plant has created jobs locally and generates 3,500 megawatt hours of renewable electricity for the national grid – enough to power every home in nearby Penygroes continually for a year.”

Gwynedd Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment, Councillor Gareth Roberts added: “We are very proud that the GwyriAD plant is now fully operational – it is the first facility of its kind delivered by a Welsh Council and underlines Gwynedd’s commitment to finding new green ways of dealing with the county’s food waste.

“As well as processing more than 150 tonnes of household food waste every week in a sustainable and responsible manner, the GwyriAD plant will also produce natural biofertiliser to be used on local farmland and produce green electricity.”

John Ibbett, Biogen Chairman, also commented, saying: “We are very proud to have been involved with this pathfinder project. Thanks to the foresight of the Welsh Government, the investment from Iona Capital and Biogen’s strong working partnership with Gwynedd Council, the GwryiAD plant is now making a valuable contribution to sustainable waste disposal and renewable energy supply in Wales.”

Last year, His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales visited the facility and planted an autumn spire rowan tree at the site.

The Prince of Wales has been a vocal advocate of the AD process, with the Duchy of Cornwall – the estate held by each successive Prince of Wales – opening the UK's 'first' commercial scale AD and biomethane-to-grid plant in 2012, as part of its J V Energen joint venture in Poundbury, Dorset.

Read more about Prosiect GwyriAD.