Biogas Action – Working with a Community Energy Company in Wales

Ynni Anafon, an “Industrial and Provident Society” has already installed a 240kW hydro system on the Afon (River) Anafon, in 2015. This has been a tremendous success but it is unable to facilitate one of the highest wishes of the village (Abergwyngregyn) residents – cheaper electricity. As the hydro-generator exports at high voltage, it is not suitable to use as part of the“Energy Local” model. The generating source needs to be on the low voltage system.

Ynni Anafon sought advice from local experts on renewable energy and it was suggested that they look at a combination of two or more technologies to provide the necessary generation for their proposed low voltage scheme to supply the village. One relatively easy technology to install and finance would be photovoltaic (PV). This would, however, provide little generation during the winter and none during the hours of darkness. There needs to be another means of generation that could supplement this intermittent generation. One of the possible technologies was AD, a potentially good fit with PV, and the community company was advised to contact SWEA (Biogas Action).

Aims and Objectives of this Action
The objective is to fit a second technology (possibly alongside a battery storage system) that would be reasonably cost-effective in providing a balance to the intermittent supply of electricity from a fairly large PV array – that would probably be sited on the roofs of cattle buildings on a farm on the edge of the village.
The question for Biogas Action was whether AD could be that technology – and if so what form it would take.

More: Find out more on BiogasAction here