Back to Blogs

NI Anaerobic Digestion Plant Wins Over £10m of Investment

  • Publish Date: Posted over 7 years ago

The Foresight Group LLP, which is heavily invested in by the UK's Green Investment Bank, will be extending £10.5 million of investment for the construction of two new anaerobic digestion plants in Ireland.

The new plants will have total capacity of 3 MW and be located in Ballymena. The funding will be awarded to support the construction, procurement and engineering of the project, as well as the maintenance and operation of the new contracts.

The project will be developed by an experienced anaerobic digestion firm, Stream BioEnergy Limited, and it will be fuelled entirely by poultry waste - one of the first plants in the world to use this type of fuel to such a degree.

Strong Partnerships

Scott Hamilton, Northern Ireland's Economy Minister, said that the project was a fantastic example of how private and public sector investors could meet to invest in technologies that support sustainable agriculture, renewable power and economic development. The project will help the local poultry farming economy to evolve and create as many as 100 jobs in the build phase, with an addition dozen long-term operational roles once the plan is live in 2017.

Sustainable Power

The two plants will produce over 20,000 Mwh of clean and renewable power annually, which would power around 5,000 homes. The Green Investment Bank have said that they expect to see an increasing number of rural communities looking to invest in anaerobic digestion technologies to prevent usable organic waste from otherwise being diverted to landfill. The Green Investment Bank are now supporting six AD plants in total, five of which are located in Northern Ireland, which demonstrates the sector's growth.

The Green Investment Bank was set up by the government in 2012 to help Britain make the transition towards a sustainable economy.