Potato Power

A British pie and mash firm makes history as the world’s first factory to run on a potato-powered electricity generator.

20:56 30 September 2015

The Cavaghan and Gray ready meals plant in Carlisle, Cumbria, is powered by a bio-refinery that converts leftover potatoes and peelings into electricity and steam. The company uses potato peelings from their own pie-and-mash food like that are sold in supermarkets like Tesco and Sainsbury. The green generator can power up to 850 homes and produce about 3,500 MWh and around 5,000 MWh steam in a year. 

 

2 Sisters Food Group, the company’s parent firm, say that the state-of-the-art generator can could also be used at their factories across the UK. Meanwhile, the Carlisle site aims to generate 35,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year and slash the group’s carbon footprint by 20%. 

 

Andrew Edlin, 2 Sisters’ group sustainability director, said: “The bio-refinery is a world-first for the food industry.

 

"It uses a new type of super-efficient technology to generate energy from potato waste.”