A new wave of large-scale green glasshouse developments are set to hit the UK, creating thousands of jobs and significantly increasing UK production.
Peterborough Renewable Energy Limited (PREL) is developing an 81 megawatt Green Energy Park in Fengate and is in talks with Dutch partners to create a 100 hectare glasshouse using waste heat and carbon dioxide on neighbouring land. The development could create 1,500 jobs in the process.
The firm will first build a 3ha trial glasshouse on the energy park land next spring to look at options for different crops.
Director of planning and development John Dickie told FPJ PREL has been fact-finding in The Netherlands and is considering a number of options for the glasshouses including growing orchids, edible flowers and even combining aquaculture with tomato production.
The firm, which sponsors Peterborough United FC, is also planning another, possibly even larger, glasshouse alongside a 65 acre, 48 megawatt energy park in Sutton Bridge, Lincolnshire.
The planning application for the site is likely to be submitted before March 2012, with construction within a year.
Dickie said: “We actually have the potential to create a cold park at Sutton Bridge where waste heat is inverted into cooling systems to use for cold stores. This would be less expensive as it would not involve the National Grid.”
PREL was formed 10 years ago and the Peterborough site, which gained planning permission in 2009, is its first UK project.
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