We all know the future can be a scary space, recent world events have been a reminder of this and sometimes it’s difficult to see how it will unfold. However, there are things that we can predict and one of these issues is the closing of the energy support schemes. The first AD plants were commissioned a number of years ago when a 20 year FiT sounded like it would be almost never ending, but with the years slowly ticking away a number of plants are looking at how they can operate ‘subsidy-free’.

We are aware that there are those speaking to government on the industry’s behalf to see what can be done to lessen the impact of these withdrawals and we fully support these measures but in a post-covid cash strapped world we need to plan for the worst-case scenario.

Now, as you would expect, we have been speaking to clients, planning how they can operate without these financial supports. This is not simple and needs a multi-facetted approach but it can be done, looking at the mechanical and biological processes at work in the plant and looking at how these can be improved to raise outputs and reduce costs.