A £50 million fund has been launched by the Green Investment Bank (GIB) to finance small-scale recycling and waste projects.
Investment company Foresight Group will administer the fund and aim to raise at least another £50 million from private sector co-investors to match the money being put in by the GIB. The fund already has an extensive pipeline in place, according to the bank.
Business minister Matthew Hancock announced the fund yesterday while visiting a GIB-funded biopower plant under construction at Tyseley, Birmingham. The £47 million project uses a new type of gasification system, which is the first of its kind in the UK, GIB said.
When operational, it will divert up to 67,000 tonnes of recovered wood from landfill every year and produce enough electricity to power more than 17,000 homes, it added.
Shaun Kingsbury, chief executive of GIB, said: “Investing our capital through funds has proven to be an important and successful part of our investment strategy, allowing us to back a wider range of smaller projects right across the UK.”
The new recycling and waste fund is the second GIB fund to be managed by Foresight. The first supported seven new waste and recycling projects, including small-scale on-farm anaerobic digestion plants in rural Northern Ireland and a biogas project in Dagenham, East London.
This fund has fully committed its initial funding ahead of schedule, GIB said.
