A renewables specialist has made a multi-million investment in a plant in rural Fife that was developed to produce gas from chicken manure and other residues of the farming process.
The JLEN infrastructure fund has acquired a stake in the Peacehill Farm anaerobic digestion plant in an £11 million deal. The plant was developed on the farm run by the Forster family to provide an additional income stream and reduce energy costs.
The Peacehill plant produces biomethane for export to the national gas grid. It also includes a combined heat and power generator.
Private equity investors buy Edinburgh food waste to energy plant
Other farmers have invested in anaerobic digestion plants that can help reduce their reliance on potentially volatile commodity prices.
JLEN highlighted the appeal of investing in plants such as Peacehill, which benefit from support from subsidies that were introduced to encourage investment in renewable energy generating plants.
The investment company’s chairman Richard Morse said the Peacehill plant has a proven operational history and is supported by a high proportion of inflation-linked revenues backed by government subsidy regimes.
JLEN has also invested in seven agricultural anaerobic digestion plants in England. It says these inject renewable biogas into the main network and create renewable electricity for use on site.
The company’s portfolio includes the Dungavel windfarm in South Lanarkshire and Carscreugh wind farm in Dumfries & Galloway.
£104m windfarm deal reflects investor interest in Scottish assets
The recent slump in equity markets following a long period of volatility may encourage others to invest in infrastructure assets from which they can generate steady long term returns.
JLEN says its policy is to invest in environmental infrastructure projects that have the benefit of predictable inflation-linked cashflows supported by long-term contracts or stable regulatory frameworks.
The fund is managed by the London-based Foresight investment group.
Shops across Scotland are closing. Newspaper sales are falling. But we’ve chosen to keep our coverage of the coronavirus crisis free because it’s so important for the people of Scotland to stay informed during this difficult time.
However, producing The Herald's unrivalled analysis, insight and opinion on a daily basis still costs money, and we need your support to sustain our trusted, quality journalism.
To help us get through this, we’re asking readers to take a digital subscription to The Herald. You can sign up now for just £2 for two months.
If you choose to sign up, we’ll offer a faster loading, advert-light experience – and deliver a digital version of the print product to your device every day. Click here to help The Herald: https://www.heraldscotland.com/subscribe/ Thankyou, and stay safe.
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 here