New life for ‘state-of-the-art’ biodigester facility

San Francisco-based firm Generate Capital has purchased the Fremont Community Digester facility for $4.4 million (€4 million), and plans to reopen the biomass plant later in 2017, according to MiBiz.

The Fremont Community Digester, located in Newaygo County, Michigan, was forced to close two years ago. Former owner NOVI Energy lost the plant to receivership after failing to cover its upfront costs, the MiBiz article states.

Opened in 2012, the Fremont Community Digester was the first large scale facility in Michigan to turn organic waste from companies into renewable energy. The facility cost $22million to build, and was praised as being “state-of-the-art”.

In 2013, NOVI Energy formed a company to sell a brand of fertiliser made from the waste of organic materials used to fuel the digester.

Generate Capital specialises in equity and debt facilities to help fund “sustainable infrastructure” companies. Founder and president Jigar Shah told MiBiz that although his company were in the early stages of a stakeholder engagement process, they hope to reopen the plant by the end of the year.

After laying idle since 2015, many components of the plant will need to be updated before it can resume production. Generate Capital’s plan is for organic waste producing companies to pay the plant to collect their waste, alongside the main revenue stream of a power purchase agreement still in place with Consumers Energy.