By Lynda Kiernan
Macquarie Capital Principal Finance (Macquarie) has made its first capital commitment in the biogas sector through an undisclosed majority investment in leading UK-based biogas innovator and producer, BioCow.
“We have followed the development of anaerobic digestion in Europe for several years, looking for the right operating partner to scale this carbon neutral energy technology,” said Patrick Ottersbach, managing director, Macquarie Capital Principal Finance. “We are excited to work with BioCow to develop its platform and contribute to the UK’s energy transition.”
Located in the Cambridgeshire Fens, one of the UK’s top agricultural regions, BioCow is one of the first companies to take the lead on anaerobic digestion in the country. Applying the process to agricultural waste, BioCow produces biomethane, a clean energy source for home heating and transport fuel. A second by-product of anaerobic digestion is a nutrient-rich digestate fertilizer that reduces reliance on petroleum-based products by returning nutrients to the soil that would have otherwise been bound for the landfill.
And as the process of anaerobic digestion does not use combustion, the process generates no greenhouse gases, and has the potential to reduce the greenhouse effect in the UK by 21 percent by 2020, according to GreenMatch.
“We started BioCow to produce biomethane on farms in an environmentally and economically sustainable manner,” said Derek Bourgoyne, co-founder and director, BioCow. “In Macquarie, we have found a financially strong partner with world-leading expertise in renewable energy and infrastructure.”
BioCow plans to use the capital gain from its acquisition to expand its operations in Cambridgeshire, and to complete the first biomethane injection point into the UK’s national grid, as part of a pilot project to develop innovative solutions to reduce the time and cost assumed when connection to the high-pressure transmission grid.
“We are excited to partner together to develop anaerobic digestion into a mainstream gas source in the UK and meet growing demand for carbon neutral gas for heating and transport,” said Bourgoyne.
Other biogas projects announced in the UK this year include a plant being built by German biogas plant manufacturer Weltec Biopower in West Yorkshire that will use agricultural and food waste as its feedstock, and is scheduled to be operational by the end of this year.
And another in Kent that is being built with capital financing totaling £14.7 million (US$16.3 million) provided by Prestige Funds.
“With many banks retreating from non-core areas of lending over the last 10 years, private finance sources have become essential for farms, food and agri groups that want to introduce green energy projects,” said Craig Reeves, founder, Prestige Funds, in March of this year.
– Lynda Kiernan is Editor with GAI Media and daily contributor to the GAI News and Agtech Intel platforms. If you would like to submit a contribution for consideration, please contact Ms. Kiernan at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.