Green energy firm Ecotricity are set to roll out a new way of generating gas in Britain – the culmination of several years of research and development into making Green Gas – from grass.

With the first project to be submitted into planning later this year, Ecotricity said the Green Gas Mills concept is scalable, meaning green gas could be rolled out across Britain and immediately begin displacing imported fossil-fuel gas in the grid.

The Green Gas Mills will make gas from grass sourced from local farms – with the amount of land used for grazing cattle almost halving since 1990 according to Defra.

Using the Anaerobic Digestion process the grass will break down to produce biogas that is purified into biomethane and fed straight into the national grid plus a fertiliser that will go back onto the farmers fields to improve the soil.

The company said that each of its Green Gas Mills will power 6,000 homes – providing gas for customers that is not only carbon neutral, but financially assists local farmers, supports food production, improves land quality, and ensures wildlife habitats are created.

According to Ecotricity founder Dale Vince, the process will provide a viable carbon-neutral alternative to fracking. He said:

“This is the beginning of a revolution in gas, we can take what we’ve done with green electricity, which last quarter generated 22% of the UK’s electricity needs, and apply it to gas.”

“If both the energy and agricultural sectors can grasp this opportunity, this can end of the debate around fracking because we simply won’t need it.”