Bernard Matthews in multi-million pound biomass boiler deal

Britain's largest turkey producer, Bernard Matthews, has announced it will roll out 179 biomass boilers for installation in 21 of its turkey farms in Norfolk, Suffolk and Lincolnshire in a project deal with renewable energy solutions specialist Lumicity.

The project will reduce carbon emissions at the farms and allow Bernard Matthews to achieve fuel savings against its current costs.

As well as this, the dry heat biomass systems improve heat circulation, leading to further benefits including reduced in-house ammonia levels, reduced ventilation requirements, and increased litter quality.

David Joll, executive chairman of Bernard Matthews, was quoted as saying: 'Sustainability is central to our long term business strategy...with the addition of biomass boilers on our farms, we're well placed to be generating 100% of our energy sustainably by 2016.'

Lumicity is managing the project and will do so for the next 20 years. The company identified the sites, designed the project, advised Bernard Matthews through the process of tendering and negotiating, and introduced financing.

Funding for the project was secured from the UK Green Investment Bank (GIB) via its Energy Saving Investments (ESI) fund, with the project gaining approval from UK business secretary Vince Cable.

The Equitix-managed fund, for which GIB is a key investor, is investing £12 million (€14.3 million) in the project. This mobilises an additional £12.5 million of additional private sector capital, coming from the Equitix Energy Efficiency Fund (EEEF).