ABOUT US

Our Mission Statement

Ty Pant Energy and our consortium will sustainably utilise natural energy resources and thereby reduce the reliance on fossil fuels and nuclear energy. We intend to make a significant contribution to the UK’s commitment for carbon neutrality by 2050

For the first time since the Industrial Revolution, the UK is obtaining more power from zero-carbon sources than fossil fuels. The milestone has been passed for the first five months of 2019. National Grid says clean energy has nudged ahead with 48% of generation, against 47% for coal and gas (and 5% misc) BUT that still leaves 47% yet to be replaced with renewable energy! The 2050 UK target of achieving carbon neutrality is now law and ALL major UK infrastructure projects MUST show how they contribute to reaching this target. The 3rd runway at Heathrow was denied for this reason!

We are a disposable society and our rubbish, that can’t be recycled, is dumped in a land-fill which is capped when it’s full.  Land-fills can’t be built on our used for pretty much anything except …

For the sake of our planet why not repurpose these capped land-fills to generate and store solar and wind power so that we, our children and our children’s children can switch off the remaining 47% of fossil fuel burning power stations?

UK FOOD IMPORTED FROM EUROPE

The value of fruit and vegetables (“produce”) imported into the UK is roughly £10bn per annum

This produce is imported from all over the world, with almost a fifth (19%) coming from Spain, 11% from the Netherlands and 5% from South Africa.

The carbon footprint resulting from the transportation of this imported produce is therefore HUGE and the main constraints to growing such crops (e.g. tomatoes) all year round in the UK are 1) it’s too cold in the UK during the autumn/winter and 2) the UK receives insufficient light during the autumn and winter months

Landfill occupies 2,000 hectares in the UK (that’s roughly 2,000 football fields in total area). From a land use planning perspective such sites are deemed to be hazardous and subject to strict control.  They cannot be used for traditional built development such as housing, retail, industrial or commercial development as they are inherently unstable. In essence landfills have a limited, if not zero, investment return.

Most landfills have an existing, high capacity, connection to the UK National Grid “the Grid” e.g. to power compacting machinery, plants to burn off waste gases etc.  The costs to implement such connection to the Grid are very high and often prohibitive (so we will look to prioritise those landfills that have an existing connection).

All landfills have drilled bore holes to allow the escape of methane from organic decomposition, but in most cases this is just “burned off” (methane is 36 times worse than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas).  Compressing the methane would be prohibitively expensive. The site will produce gas and require management for 30 – 60 years. As methane production is a biological process, moisture is required. Our consortium partner, Dragon Drilling, have patented a design for the introduction of leachate back in dry waste to stimulate Land Fill Gas (LFG) production. This could breathe new life into sites which are perceived to be in LFG decline.

The centre of a typical landfill has a temperature of roughly 35 to 45 degrees centigrade and are ideal candidates for the implementation of a heat exchanger OR Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) to extract this heat energy. The choice of which heat extraction method is used is dependent on how the energy itself is used.

We propose that all suitable capped land-fill sites in the UK should:
Be turned into renewable energy hubs  (“hubs”) generating electricity and heat to be supplied to greenhouses/vertical farms growing crops 24 hours of the day, 7 days of the week, 365 days of the year (24x7x365) to replace, as much as possible, the produce imported from abroad (“produce”) with home-grown produce thereby massively reducing the carbon footprint of produce and repatriating produce supply chains.

Have the optimum number of Solar PV panels and/or wind turbines installed on/around the land-fill whilst still allowing for gaps for e.g. further drilling of boreholes for management of LFG and leachate.  Optimum being defined by consumer needs averaged over the year AND peak need e.g. at night in a cold winter.

Have a significantly large array of solar panels and batteries to supply the greenhouses 24x7x365.  This will mean that during the summer months, these “hubs” will generate surplus electricity that can e.g. be sold to the grid.

Have heat exchangers / ground source heat-pumps (GSHP) installed to capture the heat generated by decomposition within the land-fill AND have a bore to release the methane (this is mandatory) and then capture the heat generated by the methane burn-off.  The number of heat exchangers/ GSHPs will be dictated by the heating requirements of the greenhouses.

Careful consideration would need to be given to a) the siting and design of greenhouses, battery containers, wind turbines etc given the inherently unstable nature of the land-fill and probably would need to be installed on stable ground around the periphery of the land-fill and suitably shielded from view from surrounding areas; b) design and landscaping of the solar panels is critical to obtaining planning consent, and consideration would need to be given to the prevention of glare from the solar panels.

Meet Our Team

Colin HALL

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Colin set up the company after installing a Ground Source Heat, Solar PV panels and battery storage at his home in rural Shropshire made him realize that up-front capital is the major hurdle to all renewable energy installations.  He is passionate about the natural world and renewable energy’s pivotal role in helping save the planet.

Tom Higginson MRTPI

DIRECTOR

Tom is a Chartered Town Planner with 30 years’ experience in the public and private sectors specialising in strategic planning, heritage, urban regeneration and infrastructure. 

As Director of Planning at Network Rail, he had responsibility for delivery of the Company’s significant investment programme.

Tom has considerable experience of community consultation and stakeholder engagement, particularly with local authorities and national governments. He is Chair of the Trustees of the NN Contemporary Arts Centre Northampton and sits on the Planning Committee of the British Property Federation. 

Andy plant

finance director

Andy has spent over thirty years working in finance, taxation and legal issues across a broad range of ‘blue chip’ businesses.  Educated in Law (including a Masters Degree in Business Law), he trained in finance and taxation with Arthur Andersen and KPMG.  Since then he has held senior positions within Woolwich Plc, BMW UK (seven years) and more recently with Lloyds Banking Group Plc (eleven years).

He has detailed experience of dealing with a varied and extensive range of issues including Treasury operations, M&A activity, outsourcing projects, deal structuring, complex contractual arrangements, tax litigation and project management.

Glenn Bladon

DIRECTOR

Glenn has spent over 25 years working in IT, on both the client and supply side of the industry, giving him significant experience of leading and delivering transformational change. Previously, he was Chief Solutions Officer at the ECS Group, a co-founder of Haywood Warren Limited and held CIO and CTO positions at First Group, Vertex Data Sciences, Cadbury, BT Global Services and Royal Mail.

Neil Bromilow

DIRECTOR

Neil has over 20 years’ experience working in global financial institutions leading teams that support mission-critical technology services.  He has worked in London, Chicago and Melbourne and has a track record for driving efficiencies – “doing more for less” – and delivering customer-led business outcomes. He also has experience working in Agribusiness in Australia, where he empowered Australia’s farmers to deliver improved yields whilst reducing the impact on the environment.

Neil attended university in Rome studying at the Venerable English College and the Pontifical Gregorian University.

Geoff Ellison

DIRECTOR

After working as a Government scientist for the Ministry of Agriculture, he began a 40-year career in the Environmental sector. This included becoming Technical Director of a national waste management organisation specialising in waste treatment, incineration and landfill. He is now an Environmental and Legal Consultant. He is Chairman of Dragon Drilling, the largest contractor in the sector installing boreholes for power generation and environmental control for the major landfill operators in the UK. Dragon Drilling also operate in the renewable energy sector, drilling boreholes for ground source heating systems.

Supporting the residential and agricultural sectors transition to carbon neutrality