Prestige Funds, a provider of private finance to the UK’s agriculture, clean energy and SME markets, has agreed to a GBP23.2 million funding deal to finance the construction of a 2.5MWe (700 nm3/h biomethane) ‘gas to grid’ anaerobic digestion plant in Kent.
The plant will take approximately 20 months to build and is the second project to be announced in Kent in 2019. The deal is the latest in a long series of financing agreements to fund anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities in the UK, which are helping farm, food and agri businesses to process waste into energy.
Prestige Funds, via its specialist asset backed direct lending fund, has approved GBP40 million of new lending in this sector in January and February alone. Prestige is funding the project through Privilege Development Finance Limited, a provider of specialist asset-backed finance and part of the Prestige/Prime group of companies.
Craig Reeves, founder of Prestige Funds, says: “Private lending funds are an important source of much-needed finance for clean energy projects of this kind. Around the country, biogas and other clean energy projects are being brought into being through the investment of private loan capital, helping Britain to meet its clean energy goals.”
The plant, which has the support of the local municipal council, is to be run 100 per cent on food and animal waste sourced from the local community and businesses. It will generate renewable gas that is ready for injection into the natural national gas grid, reducing the UK’s reliance on imported fossil gas, and helping to meet the country’s renewable energy and climate change targets.
