Why is this great news for our environment?

We currently burn natural gas and oil to heat our greenhouses and our electricity comes from the national grid. The biomass combined heat and power (CHP) plant will replace this fossil fuel energy with a renewable and sustainable source of energy, with associated reductions in carbon emissions. In fact by exporting excess electricity our energy usage will be carbon neutral.

As a country, the UK has committed to generating 15% of its energy by 2020 from renewable sources. With heat representing 40% of UK energy consumption, this target will be impossible to achieve unless many more of these local CHP facilities are operational.

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Where will you get the wood from?

Do you ever wonder what happens to the waste wood you take to the tip? We will be using this along with reclaimed wood from the construction and manufacturing industries. This is broken down into chippings and we have commitment to supply all of our requirements from within a 15 mile radius.

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How will this reduce our carbon emissions?

At the moment the heat and power we use generates 5,400 tonnes of carbon per year.

We will still need to use our gas boilers during cold spells (for around 20% of our consumption), but by supplying renewable power to New Milton and replacing conventional electricity generation, we will be more than compensating for the carbon produced from our gas boiler.

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How will this Biomass CHP unit affect me?

• Visual - The new building will be completely surrounded by existing greenhouses to minimise its visual impact, as can be seen on the “visualisations” to the right.
  The surplus electricity we produce will be exported via an existing underground connection, so there will be no pylons.
• Air Quality - Emissions will be strictly controlled and regulated by the Environment Agency.
  Even if you were to be right by the chimney, pollutant concentrations will be 10 times less than may be experienced in an unventilated kitchen when cooking with a gas hob, or if you were walking alongside a busy high street (for example Lyndhurst).
  The biomass CHP plant will not produce smoke - although on some cold winter days there may be a wispy plume of water vapour from the chimney.
• Traffic - The total number of lorries required to supply the unit will be on average 1.5 per day, during the normal working week.
• Noise - The plant will not be noisy and the building will be fully sound-proofed. It will be possible to hold a normal conversation immediately outside the building.