Branston turns to potato for power supply

You can boil them, mash them and roast them but rarely are potatoes burned to a cinder to generate electricity - but that's what one Lincolnshire company is going to do.

Branston Ltd has been given permission to build an energy from waste plant at its Mere Road site on the outskirts of Branston village.

The combined heat and power (CHP) plant, which would provide around 35 per cent of the electricity needed by the factory, would be fuelled by spuds considered unfit for the nation's dinner plates.

The reject spuds that will be used to power the plant are currently transported away from the factory in lorries and used as animal feed.

But if the facility goes ahead the amount of HGVs rumbling through the village will be dramatically reduced and the company expects its carbon footprint to drop by as much as 20 percent.