HELIUS Energy, a biomass specialist, said it is on track to start producing energy from a plant in the Highlands in the first half of next year and has won further support from one of the Scottish entrepreneurs which back the firm.
AIM-listed Helius Energy said work on a 7.2-megawatt plant in Rothes is progressing well, on time and on budget.
A collaboration between Helius, a group of distillers and Holland's Rabo bank, the plant will generate energy from by-products of the Scotch whisky industry such as the residue of grain husks. The £60 million plant will be capable of generating enough power for 9000 homes.
Directors believe the progress achieved to date has helped demonstrate the company's ability to deliver projects that could help the UK move to a low carbon economy. Chief executive Dr Adrian Bowles noted that Helius is now in the final stages of delivering the project, called CoRDde, four years after it was announced.
He said: "Helius has shown its ability to develop, finance and manage the construction of biomass projects to budget and timetable."
Dr Bowles said Helius is also in the last stages of finalising the funding needed to develop a 100 MW biomass plant at Avonmouth on the Bristol Channel.
After winning backing from Ann Gloag, co-founder of Stagecoach, last year, Helius has secured £1m additional funding from long-term supporter Angus MacDonald.
Mr MacDonald, who made around £20m when he sold his 25% stake in the eFinancial publishing and recruitment website business in 2010, will supply a £1m facility from October 1 that will mature on September 30 next year.
The company said the facility will provide greater negotiating flexibility in respect of the timing of the Avonmouth project and additional working capital. Dr Bowles said: "The financing facility clearly signals to our project partners and the wider community that our stakeholders are prepared to support Helius in bringing the Avonmouth project into construction."
The company said the facility is subject to a one-off arrangement fee of 1.5% and interest payments of 6% pa on amounts drawn down. It replaces the previous facility provided by Mr MacDonald in July 2011.
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