Iona has acquired Dryholme Biogas, a 1.8 MWe Anaerobic Digestion plant located near Silloth, Cumbria. The plant is accredited under the Government’s Feed in Tariff scheme and has been processing by-products from a local dairy alongside agricultural feedstocks.
Iona intend to implement a new programme of refurbishment works at the plant in order to improve operational performance and increase the electricity exported to the local grid. In addition, a new long term feedstock plan, under the direction of Waverley Farms, has also been introduced in conjunction with a local farmer. This will ensure that the plant has sufficient feedstock to achieve full output capacity.
The plant is to be operated by Advantage Biogas, the AD specialist, under a long term contract with performance incentives. Advantage will take on two of the existing plant operators and provide additional management resources including maintenance and biological support.
Nick Ross, director of Iona Capital said: “We identified Dryholme as a good long term asset in need of some remedial work to bring it up to its full potential. We were grateful to the Farmgen team for their support in the transaction progress which took much longer than anticipated mainly due to the grant of an amended planning permission.”
Over the past five years, Iona has financed over 20 renewable energy projects in Wales, Scotland and England, all of which supply energy and/or heat to the local grid networks. Creating a sustainable energy sector is a top priority for the UK and Iona’ s biogas projects provide attractive commercial returns to our investors – predominantly local authority pension funds, as well as long term social and economic benefits to local communities.
