Siemens and ADBA unite to lobby for more renewables powered by EfW

Siemens and the Anaerobic Digestion & Biogas Association (ADBA) have jointly called for a rapid sea change in policy to encourage greater uptake of energy-from-waste (EfW) within renewables.


Senior representatives from both organisations want the Government to develop a long term strategy to address the need for a greater mix of renewable energy sources, with a focus of maximising the use of EfW facilities. Siemens technologies currently power around one third of EfW plants across the UK.

Siemens Industry’s head of renewable power George Giles said EfW had real potential to help the UK meet its energy requirements. He highlighted by way of example the anaerobic digestion market, which he said has the potential to grow by 800% by 2020.

“While the sector grows in terms of investment and research, this is happening in spite of a lack of coherent strategy from government for how we best deal with waste.

We urgently need a strategy for how biogas should best be used in Britain. If we get this missing piece of the jigsaw in place we can head in the right direction in terms of a truly sustainable energy mix.”

His views were echoed by ADBA chief executive Charlotte Morton who maintained that the AD sector is growing at a rapid rate – 46% in the past year alone.

“AD plants provide a triple win for our economy, dealing with food waste, generating a flexible form of baseload renewable energy and supporting sustainable farming and food production,” she argued.

“But we are only at the beginning of that journey. We need a clear, long term strategy for the sector which makes the most of these resources for the UK.”

Maxine Perella

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