Mr. Noel Gavigan:

Methane is released from slurry in store and landfills, which we are now capturing, as well. The production of methane is a natural process. Being able to capture that is always important. The figures coming forward are interesting. Some of the Danish plants average 2.5% leakage. Obviously that is lost revenue on a financial model. There is considerable interest in making sure methane is fully captured, both from an environmental and financial point of view. As the industry develops, it is becoming more aware of all the nuances that need to be sorted. Some of them are bigger than were originally intended.

Ammonia is a factor, but it is a very valuable fertiliser for a farm. It is regularly used in the form of urea. Being able to protect ammonia is important. Farmers are quite good at that. It is lost nitrogen which is probably the most expensive nutrient for farmers. As we develop that technology, of which there is spreading technology, such as by injection, that will capture far more ammonia than just top spreading. Technological advances have been made and they will continue to develop over the coming years.

With regard to connection to the grid and electrical and gas connections, there is development going on to get injection points. The electrical connections for any renewable plant, that whole policy is changing over time. We are becoming more and more open to seeing new connections from both biogas plants, but there is probably a need for an approach and policy direction, especially in our current environment in which we face shortages, that any connection that has a dispatchable power source should probably be considered as an emergency connection and be given priority to go back onto the grid. We need to start looking at where there is a source available and whether the normal processes, which can take several years to navigate, are still appropriate.