RENEWABLES specialist Helius Energy has narrowed operating losses more than 10-fold in a year which saw commercial operations begin at the biomass plant it developed under a joint venture in Speyside.
Helius, whose biggest shareholder is Alastair Salvesen, scion of the Salvesen shipping dynasty, booked an operating loss of £1.3 million for the year ended September 30, down from £11.6m the year before.
Last year's loss reflected impairments of £9.9m related to delays in the development of a renewable electricity plant in Stallingborough, Lincolnshire, the rights for which Helius sold to renewables group RWE Innogy in 2008.
Last year, Helius earned management fees of £300,000 from the Rothes plant, which it handed over to CoRDe, a consortium including Helius, a division of Netherlands-based Rabobank and the Combination of Rothes Distillers, in July.
The plant, which turns by-products from whisky distilling into energy and liquid animal feed, is operating in line with expectations and exporting around 6.8 megawatts (MW) of energy to the national grid - enough to power 9000 homes.
Distillers involved include Diageo, Pernod Ricard and BenRiach.
Helius, whose shareholders also include Angus McDonald and Stagecoach co-founder Ann Gloag, said it would continue to receive an annual income of £200,000 from the plant, which generates revenues of £1m per month, under a long-term management agreement and it would also take a share of its profits in future. No profits were earned by the plant last year as production was ramping up and because of start-up costs.
So far, the plant, which took eight years and cost £60.5m to develop, is its sole source of revenue.
Helius noted its main objective for this year was to finance and construct a 100MW biomass energy plant at Avonmouth, a dock area of Bristol port.
The company said it had been holding talks with banks with a view to securing senior project debt and with potential private equity partners for the project. It hopes to commence construction in the first half of this year.
Once completed the plant, which is eligible for support under the UK Guarantee Scheme for infrastructure projects, will generate sufficient electricity to power 200,000 homes.
Elsewhere, Helius said the consultation process for its 100MW renewable energy plant in Southampton was complete, with the firm preparing to apply for a development consent order.
Chairman John Seed said: "I am pleased with the progress we made during 2013 advancing our portfolio of biomass energy projects.
"The start of commercial operation of the CoRDe biomass power plant was an important milestone for the company and one which demonstrates our strategy of delivering projects to financial close and then managing the ongoing operation of those projects."
Shares in Helius Energy closed unchanged at 13.5p.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article