Stream BioEnergy, an Irish developer and operator of anaerobic digestion (AD) plants, has secured €60million in investment as it seeks to become the leading biogas company locally.
The investment is to be used in part to acquire Tully I, a £23 million (€26.6m) 3MW operational AD plant, owned by a group of investors including funds managed by Foresight Group. The facility which is located in Ballymena, Co Antrim, has been developed and is operated by Stream. It generates about 21,600MWh of renewable energy through the processing of poultry litter. This is enough energy to power up to 4,000 homes.
The litter is sourced locally from food manufacturer Moy Park.
Headquartered in Blackrock, Co Dublin, Steam Bioenergy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Stream Capital Renewables. It was founded to develop infrastructure to process organic waste in Ireland in line with legislative requirements.
The new financing has been provided by Pioneer Point Partners, a London-based specialist infrastructure investment firm.
Founded in 2008, Pioneer is focused on investing in the energy transition and environment sectors across Europe. It has committed over €1 billion in financing to date. Last year it announced an investment in Irish-owned Echelon Data Centres in partnership with Davidson Kempner.
The firm has identified Ireland “as a priority market for biogas given the strong agricultural sector and expected biogas growth, driven by its national decarbonisation and waste targets”.
Pioneer’s maiden institutional fund reached a €150 million first close in January. The fund is seeking to raise total capital commitments of €500 million and is targeting a 15+ internal rate of return (IRR).
