Work starts on £5 million renewable energy plant capable of burning about 10,000 tonnes of oversize material from Eco’s compost operation annually.

Power generated from the biomass plant will be used for Eco’s Parley site with any excess fed into the national grid.

Trelawney Dampney, Eco’s Managing Director, said: “Renewable energy is the way forward in terms of both meeting our climate change commitments and providing much needed clean and green fuel.

“We already have one of the UK’s largest solar farms, covering about 380 acres, and this biomass plant is further evidence of our belief that renewable energy represents the future.”

Eco Sustainable Solutions was founded by Mr Dampney in 1993 and now employs 34 people with an annual turnover of £12 million.

The company annually processes 150,000 tonnes of material at Parley, the UK’s leading purpose-built site for organics recycling and renewable energy. End products include enriched topsoil, compost and woodchip.

Eco currently handles 250,000 tonnes of organic material each year across four facilities, including its highly successful anaerobic digestion (AD) plant at Piddlehinton near Dorchester.