Iona Capital, the environmentally focussed investor, has today announced the successful completion of the £7m investment in Biogen Waen Ltd, a joint venture company with Biogen, the UK’s leading Anaerobic Digestion (“AD”) company. The awarded contract is for 15 years and has a secured waste stream provided by the Consortium of Denbighshire County Council, Conwy County Borough Council and Flintshire County Council.
This is Iona’s second investment in the development of Welsh AD infrastructure under the Welsh Government’s sponsored organic waste program.
Biogen will construct and operate a new 22,500 tonnes per annum AD plant at Waen, St Asaph, Denbighshire to process the food waste supplied by the Councils from local households and businesses together with additional third party food waste.
The key elements of the contract are:
- the contract will be between the Councils and Biogen Waen
- the term is 15 years with an option to extend for a further 5 years
- it guarantees a supply of food waste to the facility at a fixed price
- it takes advantage of Government renewable incentive scheme
The AD plant will process food waste to generate 1MWe of renewable energy for the national grid, and produce a biofertiliser for local farmlands. This plant will provide sufficient power for 1,500 homes continually for a year.
This type of technology is a recognised solution to the UK Government’s stated objectives in complying with both EU landfill targets and de-carbonising the UK electricity market and the electricity generated will benefit from premium selling prices through the Feed-in Tariff scheme.
Nick Ross, Director, Iona Capital said: “This is a second project we have completed in Wales and we are delighted to have worked successfully again in partnership with Biogen and the Welsh Government. These projects are the first local authority backed schemes focussed on Anaerobic Digestion and we are pleased to have been able to support such an innovative regional infrastructure program.”
You can also read the story on NNFCC website.
