When you are going along Hargham Road towards the A11 and Thetford, a large silvery/grey building shows up through the trees. Work started on this building at Snetterton in December 2014 and the Snetterton Renewable Energy Plant became fully operational in April this year.
It produces 44MW of green electricity by burning a mix of biomass fuels including straw, oil seed rape, miscanthus (elephant grass) and wood chips.
A small group of local residents were able to go on an organised tour around the plant yesterday afternoon to see what goes on there.
It is a very large complex that is in operation 24 hours a day throughout the year. It gets through about 33 tonnes of fuel every hour and stores up to four days' worth of fuel bales on site, that is over 5,000 bales. You may have seen the large loads of straw bales on lorries that travel through the local villages on the way to Snetterton.
It is a very safety concious site. As visitors we were fitted out with high-vis jackets, hats, glasses and gloves before being shown around by our guides who explained the working of all the machinery and other equipment.
Those running the site are pleased to welcome schools, colleges, universities and interest groups to go to the site to learn more about how it works, the fuel they use and the benefits of renewable energy production. Ideally groups need to be small (around ten). You need to be fit enough to climb stairs and not worried about being able to see through the stair treads down to the ground way below.
More details at https://www.snettertonbiomass.com/
or email info@bwsceast anglia.com
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