Iona Capital invests in Scottish biogas plant

UK biogas investment firm Iona Capital has completed its investment in a Charlesfield, Scotland-based anaerobic digestion (AD) plant.

The plant will process a mixture of farm generated waste and inject biomethane directly into the local gas grid.

This project follows Iona's first Scottish project, located in Perth, which is expected to start its commissioning process shortly. The company's latest venture is its eleventh venture in the UK and its second gas-to-grid facility.

The plant is expected to be operational by the end of Q2 2015 and will produce over 3 million m3 of biomethane per annum which will be injected directly into the local gas grid.

Iona has teamed up with Germany AD specialist MT-Energie and Scotia Gas Networks (SGN), which will source the network entry equipment and oversee the projects connection to the gas grid. The project was initiated and developed by Iain MacKinnon and Trevor Jackson of Charlesfield First. Biogas Power will operate the plant, while Waverley Farm Contracts sources local feedstock supplies on a long-term basis for the plant.

'The biogas market continues to offer significant long-term growth potential and attractive risk weighted returns to investors,' says Nick Ross, director at Iona Capital.