The proposed development would operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
Fen Lane in East Keal(Image: Google Maps)
A proposal to tweak the plans of an anaerobic digestion plant has been put forward which could see the site switch to using animal manure.
Alan Hawkes (Farms) Ltd has applied to Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) to develop the facility on land attached to Glebe Farm, off Fen Lane, in East Keal, near Spilsby.
The proposal would process up to 103,000 tonnes a year of feedstock – including poultry manure, straw manure and pig slurry – alongside using 20,000 tonnes of recirculated water – to produce 7.6GW of renewable energy and 123,000 tonnes of ‘digestate’ which can be used for natural fertiliser.
The proposed development would operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
HGV delivery and exports of the digestate and CO2 would operate from 7am to 6pm Monday to Saturday throughout the year.
There would be no deliveries on Sundays or Bank Holidays.
The site was previously granted planning permission to develop an anaerobic digestion plant to produce energy in April 2018, with the conditions varied in July 2019 and April 2021.
Ground works began in 2022 but the plant was not installed and the site is currently used to store some agricultural machinery.
A further application has subsequently been submitted which alters the proposed layout of the development and seeks to use animal waste products instead of crop waste to produce energy.
The agent, E4Environment Ltd, said: “It is proposed to alter the type and quantity of feedstock materials and alter the layout of the infrastructure on site.
“The rationale is that the proposed changes would result in a move from crop based feedstocks to more animal manure feedstocks, with the mutual benefits of increasing the energy capacity that can be produced per tonne of feedstock, alongside achieving the benefit that each tonne of animal manure would contribute more to CO2 emission reductions than using grass or crops.”
Access to the site will be from Fen Road – which was already approved under the previous planning permission – and would allow two HGVs to wait or pass on the access track without interfering with traffic on Fen Lane.
LCC will assess the application and will make a final decision at a later date.