HOLSWORTHY Biogas Plant will be able to supply 12,000 homes with electricity via an innovative storage scheme.

The advanced system, which uses an existing underground connection, allows more electricity to be fed into the town's grid during a period of high demand.

It has been developed by plant operators Andigestion Ltd: a subsidiary of Summerleaze Ltd, along with outside companies Algo Instruments and Western Power Distribution (WPD).

Over 70,000 tonnes of waste food products is consumed by the biogas plant each year which ican gerenate 4megawatts (mw) of electricity on average.

The demand for electricity is greater during the day than at night, therefore a newly installed biodome can store an extra 5,000 cubic metres of biogas produced at night for use during the day. This will provide 12mw hours of electricity. It is hoped that the local grid will cater for 5mw this summer.

For the full report, and a round up of the area news and sport, please see this week's edition of the 'Post'.