Broadley Copse Farm is based on Basil Baird’s 2,500 acre arable and pig farm in Funtington, West Sussex where pigs have been reared for 50 years.
Farm Renewables, a renewable energy development company, worked with the farm to develop the on-site anaerobic digestion (AD) plant to meet the demands of an expanding farm business - the sheer volume of pig manure presented a problem to the farmer. The on-site AD plant offered an opportunity to make use of the large quantities of manure for generating electricity with the by-product being used back on the arable land, benefiting the soil by adding nutrients to replace bagged fertiliser.
The project build was completed in 2018: producing green energy - 85% of which is sold to the grid and the remainder used to power the farm and the plant itself.