Retrospective plans to install an anaerobic digestion plant in the Forest of Dean have been given approval.
Plusterwine Biogas Ltd has been granted permission by district planners for three digesters with a feeder plant, two dryer units, two 500kW combined heat and power engines at Plusterwine House in Station Road, Woolast.
The approved plans also include storage buildings, a boiler room and a digestate lagoon.
The plant will be fed around 32,000 tonnes of maize, grass and rye silage, crop residues and farm manure per year.
The energy firm says some of the feed will be brought on site from nearby farms during the harvest season, and some is brought to the site all year around.
While the electricity will be produced and used for the farm and fed into the National Grid.
And excess heat from the process will be used to dry waste paper, maize and grass silage for animal bedding.
The dried paper would be exported and the maize kept for bedding for the onsite cattle and then to be fed into the plant.
The plant produces 1MW of renewable energy over a year which is sold to the National Grid combined with 2,000KW of heat produced from the anaerobic digestion process.
Some 71 residents wrote in support of the scheme saying it provides employment and green energy.
However, 38 people objected over concerns over the bad smell that comes from the site and that the scale of the proposal is way beyond the original proposal which increases heavy traffic.
Planning officers at the Forest of Dean District Council recommended approving the scheme subject to conditions.
And Councillor Brian Lewis told today’s (July 13) planning committee meeting that there was a marginal preference for the proposals overall.
“We are very sympathetic with the problems of this proposal,” he said.
“The thought of not going ahead with it might cause a lot of unnecessary problems.
“This is a financially viable proposal and I think we should support it.”
He proposed approving the scheme and this was seconded by Cllr Simon Phelps who said there was no ideal way of producing energy without “somebody somewhere being upset about it”.
However, Councillor Thom Forester said he wanted more information about the farm’s green credentials as the vehicles used will be fossil fuel dependent.
Councillor Ian Whitburn also said he was concerned they were bringing the feed from elsewhere.
And he said that a lot of work had been done on the site without planning permission.
“I don’t particularly like that. If it were a private house, we’ve be up in arms about it,” he said.
The committee approved the scheme by seven votes to three.
