THOUSANDS of homes are being powered by a new waste plant in Greater Leys.

The £28m facility in Grenoble Road went live earlier this year and since April has been turning human waste into electricity.

Incinerating up to 58 dry tonnes of waste every day, the Oxford Thermal Hydrolysis Process plant can generate 19GWhr of renewable energy a year, the equivalent, staff say, of powering around 100,000 homes.

Some of the electricity is used to power Oxford Sewage Treatment Works next door in Grenoble Road; the rest is sold back to the National Grid.

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Blackbird Leys Parish Council chairman Gordon Roper said: “I think it’s a brilliant idea. We knew nothing about it, but I take my hat off to them.

“We are all looking to use renewable energy these days, so what a good way to get rid of waste.”

Waste arrives at the plant, run by Veolia, and the company uses Bucher presses, normally used to press apples for cider, to process it.

It is burnt at 160 degrees, then fed into anaerobic digesters where bacteria break it down so it releases methane gas.

That gas is burnt to create heat and generate electricity.

The leftover waste is recycled as organic fertiliser.

To ensure odour levels did not rise at the site, a covered “cake” storage building and a covered treated sludge storage barn were built.

The Oxford plant is one of five constructed this year by Thames Water to hit a 20 per cent renewable energy target for 2015.

The others are at Beckton and Riverside sewage works in Essex, Crossness in Thamesmead, Long Reach in Dartford, and Crawley.

Thermal hydrolysis process operator Matt Sexton said together they produced enough renewable electricity to power the whole of Oxford and Woking.

He said: “This investment is good for the environment, our business and our customers.

“Generating energy from waste reduces our running costs by protecting us from the price fluctuations of the mainstream energy markets, bringing savings that help to keep customers’ bills down.”

And by 2021 the Oxford plant will be processing 24,000 tonnes of waste every year.

Leys Oxfordshire county councillor Steve Curran said: “Anything which provides an alternative electricity source is a good idea.

“It’s not going to be used for anything else.”

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