The Green Investment Bank has sold 70MW of bioenergy and energy from waste assets to the Bioenergy Infrastructure Group for an undisclosed sum.
The news comes just days after the government completed the controversial sale of the bank – now known as the Green Investment Group – to a consortium led by Australian firm Macquarie.
The assets included in the deal consist of four biomass and energy from waste plants, 15 anaerobic digestion plants and a materials recovery facility.
Twelve are located in Northern Ireland, seven in England and one in Scotland. They range in generating capacity from 200kW to 20MW – the largest being the Mersey Bioenergy facility near Liverpool.
The Bioenergy Infrastructure Group (BIG) described the deal as an “important milestone” in its drive to more than double its assets over the next five years. The acquisitions will increase the capacity of its generation portfolio to over 115MW.
“Rising demand for electricity from industry and consumers and the need to treat waste in an environmentally sustainable manner reinforces the importance of investing in biomass and technologies,” said BIG chief executive Hamish McPherson.
“Over the long term, these facilities will be vital to lighting and heating homes, treating waste, and supporting near-future innovations, such as driverless and electric cars.”
BIG’s generation portfolio previously consisted of just two partially constructed energy from waste plants – the 24MW Energy Works facility in Hull and the 21.5MW Ince Bio Power facility in Cheshire – both of which are expected to come online during 2018. The group has a further of 200MW of generation projects in the pipeline.
The sale of the Green Investment Bank has faced vehement opposition since it was announced in June 2015, among other things, due to fears it could be broken up and stripped of its assets.