Esken Renewables helped the UK to avoid 630,000 tonnes of GHG (Greenhouse Gas) emissions last year according to a report undertaken by Logica Consultants.
Esken Renewables receives waste wood from the construction industry and Household Waste and Recycling Centres that would otherwise be sent to landfill where it would release methane gas over time.
Esken takes that waste wood to instead produce biomass fuel and last year treated and supplied 1.1 million tonnes of it to biomass plant customers – helping the UK to avoid GHG emissions equivalent to taking 135,746 cars off the road.
Including other types of biomass, Esken Renewables supplied 1.4m tonnes of fuel which its biomass plant customers used to generate an estimated 1,880,000 MWh of electricity. This represents c.2% of the UK’s domestic energy use and is sufficient to power around 650,000 homes.
Producing energy using biomass plants compared to doing so using gas-fired electricity also meant that the UK was able to avoid 714,000 tonnes of GHG emissions in the year from fossil fuels. The combined GHG emissions savings of avoiding waste wood going to landfill and using it to generate renewable energy meant that the UK avoided around 1.344MTCO2e in FY22.
Richard Jenkins, Chief Executive, Esken Renewables said,
“We are immensely proud of our role in the UK circular economy and our contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions such as methane that is released from waste wood sent to landfill. The biomass plants that we supply generate around six times less emissions per kilowatt than natural gas power generators. The combination of avoiding methane and generating cleaner energy is already providing a significant benefit to the UK. We believe that with the right Government support the biomass industry, and in particular those that use fuel from waste wood, can play a critical role in the objective to achieve Net Zero by 2050.”