A GREEN energy company has completed the construction of an anaerobic digester in Farleigh Wallop.

FLI Energy has finished the Tamar Energy Anaerobic Digestion (AD) Facility a month ahead of schedule.

The AD plant and entire site infrastructure was designed and constructed by FLI Energy to generate 1.5MW of renewable energy – enough to power more than 3,000 homes.

It will take in approximately 30,000 tons of food waste per year, which would otherwise end up in landfill. It will also produce a nutrient rich fertilizer which will be returned to estate lands.

Formed in February 2012, Tamar Energy is a renewable energy development and operation company, which received £97million in initial financial backing from investors, to build a network of 40 anaerobic digestion plants in the UK, by 2018.

The Basingstoke AD facility is the first one of those projects to have been built.

The plans were objected to by more than 350 people who signed the Say NO to Farleigh Wallop Waste Digester petition. Protesters were concerned about the extra lorries visiting the site each day.

Alan Lovell, chairman and chief executive of Tamar Energy, said: “The completion of construction of our first plant is a significant milestone for Tamar Energy.

“The project teams of both FLI Energy and Tamar Energy have done a fantastic job. A truly collaborative approach has delivered a complex project to time and to budget and all parties are very proud of the achievement.”

Declan McGrath, FLI Energy’s managing director, added: “I am proud to have participated in this great project, and we are looking forward to continued collaboration replicating this success on the delivery of many more AD projects, as part of Tamar’s plan to roll-out a national network of plants.”