5th February 2012
Bio Energy creates countryside commerce
7th Feb 2007
Bedford College is joining forces with ADER to bring together farms from across the region to think about bio-fuel and related business opportunities.
The “go green” national movement has opened up doors for countryside commerce and a major event is being staged at Shuttleworth College in Bedfordshire on February 22nd.
Bedford College is well placed to take the ideas forward as it is the first college in the country to be a Skills for Energy Centre of Vocational Excellence (CoVE), in partnership with Lowestoft College. Already students are learning about using bio-fuels in motor vehicle classes and energy-saving houses in construction lessons. The college was the first in the U.K. to offer courses in Renewable Energy Technologies such as solar water heating and solar electricity generation.
Now other courses are being developed in bio-diesal and bio-mass technologies. These all have direct links with farming businesses.
Other presentations covered in the event will be:
*energy and sustainability - business opportunities for farmers
*energy technologies in farming environments
*capital grants: bio energy and low carbon farm buildings
Backing the idea is Agricultural Development in the Eastern Region (ADER) which provides support to farmers and rural businesses to encourage rural regeneration, and, works with six agricultural colleges across the region as well as the East of England Development Agency (EEDA).
Key speaker at the event will be the Mayor of Bedford Frank Branston who has long been an advocate of alternative energy. He owns a dual-fuel car and is keen to see restaurants in Bedford recycling cooking oil for use in vehicles. More recently he has visited a local farming company: Bedfordia Bio-Gen which supplies enough electricity to the national grid to power 800 homes via farm waste methane.
