Waste and biomass plants win GIB investment

 

The Green Investment Bank (GIB) is continuing its programme of investment in new renewables-fuelled power plants – most recently in a Derby plant to be fuelled with municipal waste, and a biomass combined heat and power (CHP) plant at a Scottish whisky distillery.

 

The GIB is investing £64mn into a new energy-from-waste plant being developed by Derby City and Derbyshire County Councils, alongside sponsors Interserve and Shanks Group. The bank will provide long-term loan financing alongside Germany’s Bayerische Landesbank and Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, with each bank providing a third of the loan funding.

 

The new facility in the south of the city will process waste from households in Derby and Derbyshire; increasing the amount of waste that is recycled, with the remaining treatable waste converted into energy using gasification technology from Energos. Electricity generated will be sold to the grid.

 

The project will recycle over 35,000 tonnes of materials per year and divert over 170,000 t/year of waste from landfill. Following a 32 month construction period, the project is intended to operate for 25 years.

 

The role of the GIB in what is the first long-term, project-financed, municipal gasification plant in the UK is significant. Shaun Kingsbury, Chief Executive at the GIB, explained: ‘The innovative financing of the project creates an important demonstration effect that will, in the long run, help to lower the cost of finance for innovative, green technology of this type.’ 

 

Meanwhile, John Laing and the GIB have announced plans to invest in a new £74mn biomass CHP facility in Speyside, Scotland being developed by Estover Energy. The new plant, sited near Craigellachie, Moray, will generate 87 GWh per annum of renewable electricity and 77 GWh per annum of heat.

 

The new CHP facility will contribute to reducing the cost of energy at the Macallan distillery by providing around 90% of the steam needed in the distillation process. The plant will be fuelled with forestry by-product sourced from the local area. A consortium of local growers and forest industry suppliers will supply the plant.

 

John Laing and GIB intend to make a £26mn equity investment in the project. Mott Macdonald is the lenders’ technical advisor for the project.