The new fund – Recycling and Waste LP (“RAW”) – was announced during a visit to the £47 million Birmingham BioPower project, a beneficiary of GIB funding which is currently under construction in Tyseley.
Construction of the facility is well advanced and it will, when operational, process up to 67,000 tonnes of recovered wood every year to produce electricity. The recovered wood will be supplied by local small business, JM Envirofuels Ltd.
The RAW fund will be managed by investment specialist Foresight Group which plans to raise at least a further £50m from private sector co-investors to match GIB’s investment.
A GIB spokesman explained that it would “span the full range of recycling and waste technologies” and that Foresight would assess applications on a case-by-case basis.
He added that the fund would come out of the GIB’s overarching £3.8 billion budget and represented new investment in the waste and recycling sector.
Innovation
The minister said: “This investment by the Green Investment Bank will be used to fund biopower projects that will put the UK at the forefront of this innovative green technology, turning local waste wood to electricity. Today I have been able to see first-hand the work that is being done to get projects off the ground. This state of the art plant in Birmingham will be the first of its kind in the UK. It uses a new type of gasification system and will not only power 17,000 homes and recycle waste more efficiently but will also boost the local economy and create 100 local jobs.”
Shaun Kingsbury, chief executive of GIB, said that the Birmingham facility was a “great example” of the advanced technology needed across the UK.
Nigel Aitchison, partner and head of environmental at Foresight, added: “The Birmingham BioPower project is a real example of how the first fund we’ve managed on behalf of GIB can create not only sustainable, skilled jobs but also contribute to the UK’s needs in terms of energy security and waste management. We firmly believe that the second fund announced today can build on this success and continue the momentum of investment in this important element of the infrastructure sector.”
UKWREI
The new fund will be GIB’s second investment in a Foresight managed fund. The first fund – UK Waste Resources and Energy Investments (UKWREI) – was GIB’s first investment upon becoming operational in 2012. UKWREI has supported projects ranging from, small-scale on-farm anaerobic digestion plants in rural Northern Ireland, powering 850 homes, to the Birmingham waste wood facility.
The UKWREI fund has now fully committed its initial funding, backing seven new waste and recycling projects. These are:
- East London Biogas Limited in Dagenham, Essex
- Evermore Renewable Energy, Derry/Londonderry Port, Northern Ireland
- Birmingham BioPower Limited, Tyseley, Birmingham
- PAR Renewables and BRIDGE Energy, on-farm Anaerobic Digestion plants in County Tyrone and County Down, Northern Ireland (two projects)
- Willen Biogas, Enfield North London
- Mersey BioEnergy Limited, Widnes, Merseyside.
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