GIB invests £7.5 million in new AD plant in Enfield
The UK Green Investment Bank (GIB) has announced that it is to invest £7.5 million in a new £15-million anaerobic digestion (AD) and green waste composting plant in Enfield, just outside London.
The investment is the second AD project UK GIB has funded, following the completion of the TEG Biogas plant in Dagenham – billed as London’s ‘first commercial scale anaerobic digestion plant’. It is being made via GIB's Foresight-managed fund, UK Waste Resources and Energy Investments (UKWREI), which is investing £7.5 million alongside the Foresight Environmental Fund (FEF), which is investing the remaining half on the same terms as UKWREI.
AD and composting plant details
The money will help developers D Williams & Co Limited bring the 30,000 tonne AD plant online, which will process food waste from local hotels, restaurants, retail trade and local food manufacturers to produce around 7,400 megawatt hours (MWh) of renewable electricity each year – enough to power 1,750 homes.
The on-site composting facility will take garden waste from homes across London and the Northern Home Counties and turn it into compost, which – along with the digestate from the anaerobic digestion process – D Williams & Co will use as fertiliser at its 2,000 acre agricultural farm in Enfield. This will reportedly save the farmers over £120,000 each year.
Construction on the plant is expected to begin next month, with six full-time permanent jobs being created once the plant is up and running (scheduled for ‘spring 2016’).
‘Securing green jobs and a stronger economy’
Shaun Kingsbury, Chief Executive of UK GIB, said: "[This] announcement provides another demonstration of the attractiveness of anaerobic digestion infrastructure as an investment opportunity…
"We are seeing real momentum in the commercial deployment of this technology which, I hope, will see further growth in the year ahead.
"I congratulate Foresight on securing the investment to construct this new facility, which will not only save thousands of tonnes of waste from landfill, but also generate a revenue stream from a resource that would have otherwise been thrown away."
Foresight Group Partner Nigel Aitchison (pictured) added that the project, plans for which have reportedly been in development over the last year and half, was a "welcome addition to the growing waste to energy infrastructure that is supporting London in its ambition to become a world leader in waste and recycling".
Business Secretary Vince Cable welcomed the announcement, saying: "The UK has the potential to become a world leader in this kind of technology and the Green Investment Bank (GIB) is playing its part.
"This new plant will mean less of our waste going to landfill, less reliance on fossil fuels for energy generation and provides compost for the farmers whose land it is built on.
"Through our industrial strategy we are working in partnership with business to give companies the confidence to invest, securing green jobs and a stronger economy."
Matthew Pencharz, the Mayor of London's Senior Energy & Environment Adviser, also welcomed the announcement, adding that he hoped more of these ‘dynamic initiatives’ would come online across the capital.
The UK Green Investment Bank was launched in November 2012 with £3.8 billion of government funding to ‘accelerate the UK's transition to a greener economy, and to create an enduring institution, operating independently of government’.
It had previously suggested that it could invest up to £50 million in AD projects (through debt investment) via its nominated waste fund managers, Foresight and Greensphere.
Find out more about the UK Green Investment Bank.
