Defra reveals £10m ADLF

In the UK, new anaerobic digestion (AD) plants could receive financial support thanks to Defra's (Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs) £10 million (€11 million) Anaerobic Digestion Loan Fund (ADLF).

Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) will be responsible for the ADLF, which will be administered in amounts ranging from £50,000 to £1 million to support the development of new AD capacity in England.

Defra hopes the ADLF will see 300,000 tonnes of waste food diverted away from landfill by 2015.

Lending will be asset based and will include industrial units, plant and machinery, and groundwork. The projects will be selected through a competitive four-stage process, the first of which will run from July to October 2011.

'This fund is welcome news for the industry and will support projects which will make a real difference in starting to build up the UK's anaerobic digestion capacity,' says the CEO of the Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association (ADBA) Charlotte Morton, in response to Defra's announcement.

'However, it represents only a small part of the investment, which is needed to take AD to the point where it is really delivering for the UK's strategic objectives – and raising finance remains the biggest barrier for projects.'