Eco Sustainable Solutions completes work on new CHP plant

A UK-based renewables company has completed work on its new combined heat and power (CHP) plant, with support of an £8.5 million (9.94m) finance facility from HSBC.

Dorset-based Eco Sustainable Solutions, which reprocesses wood waste and organic materials into soils, composts and turf products for clients across the south coast, has used an equipment finance facility to purchase and build the plant, plus invoice finance and a term loan to facilitate further growth.

The project has created two new full time jobs.

The £6 million CHP plant is capable of burning around 10,000 tonnes of oversize material annually, taken from Eco’s successful compost operation. The energy generated from the plant will be used to power the site, with any excess fed into the National Grid.

Trelawney Dampney, Eco’s managing director, said: “HSBC, and particularly our relationship director Andy Lear have been instrumental in getting this project off the ground, and the flexible mix of invoice and asset finance has meant we’ve been able to complete the work in a really timely manner.

“This new biomass plant is testament to Eco’s belief that the future relies heavily on renewable energy, so we will continue to grow and diversify our operations and look forward to working with HSBC again to help these ambitions become a reality.”

Anthony Reed, HSBC’s area director for Hampshire & Dorset, added: “HSBC was brought on by Eco Sustainable Solutions because of our knowledge and expertise in the renewables industry, plus our ability to put the funding in place in stages which allowed the business to pay for the plant’s components before delivery.

“With this phase of the project now complete we have put an additional £3m facility in place to help the business continue to grow.”

Eco Sustainable Solutions annually processes 250,000 tonnes of material at its Parley site, the UK’s leading purpose-built site for organics recycling and renewable energy. End products include enriched topsoil, compost and woodchip. The business currently handles 340,000 tonnes of organic material each year across four facilities, including its highly successful anaerobic digestion (AD) plant at Piddlehinton near Dorchester.

This story was written by Liz Gyekye, editor of Bioenergy Insight.