A waste water lagoon the size of two football pitches is to power McCain's biggest UK chip factory, in Cambridgeshire.

The Whittlesey plant already gets 60% of its electricity from three on-site wind turbines, installed two months ago, and the lagoon will generate a further 10% of the plant's energy.

Starchy water, in which the peeled spuds are transported around the factory, will be piped into the 77,000 sq m lagoon where the starch will rise to the surface and release methane gas into a giant cover.

The gas is then safely stored and used to produce electricity through a gas burning boiler. Bill Bartlett, director of corporate affairs at McCain, said the lagoon showed how manufacturers could contribute to increasing the UK's renewable energy output from the current 2% - the lowest in Europe - to 15% by 2020, as set by Brussels this week.

"The lagoon proves UK companies can effectively use renewable energy," he said.

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