Ludgate Environmental Fund invests in German biogas
Clean technologies investment company Ludgate Environmental Fund has invested €3 million into agri.capital, a specialist developer, owner and operator of biogas plants in Germany.
The investment has been structured as 8% preferred stock with detachable warrants and is part of a €10 million funding round into agri.capital with Valiance Special Situations Fund investing alongside LEF.
Established in 2004 agri.capital uses manure and various crop silages as feedstock to produce biogas as they decompose. This methane-rich gas mixture is either burned onsite to create electricity or cleaned to biomethane and fed into the existing German natural gas network.
The fermentation residue is used as a high-quality fertiliser, returning nutrients to the soil.
Germany has approximately 16.8 million hectares of agricultural land, less than 2% (300,000 hectares) of which is currently used for biogas feedstock production.
Each year, efficiency and productivity increases in the German agricultural sector free up approximately 180,000 hectares of land for agricultural use.
A study carried out by the Leipziger Institut für Energetik und Umwelt in 2007 concluded that, by 2020, the natural gas supply of the EU and Turkey could be replaced by bio-methane without impact on the agricultural self-sufficiency for food production.
‘By combining construction, facility and resource management, financing, logistics and contracting operations in-house, agri.capital is able to efficiently provide reliable, renewable baseload power and heat to the German market,’ Nick Pople, director of Ludgate Investments says.
The investment has been structured as 8% preferred stock with detachable warrants and is part of a €10 million funding round into agri.capital with Valiance Special Situations Fund investing alongside LEF.
Established in 2004 agri.capital uses manure and various crop silages as feedstock to produce biogas as they decompose. This methane-rich gas mixture is either burned onsite to create electricity or cleaned to biomethane and fed into the existing German natural gas network.
The fermentation residue is used as a high-quality fertiliser, returning nutrients to the soil.
Germany has approximately 16.8 million hectares of agricultural land, less than 2% (300,000 hectares) of which is currently used for biogas feedstock production.
Each year, efficiency and productivity increases in the German agricultural sector free up approximately 180,000 hectares of land for agricultural use.
A study carried out by the Leipziger Institut für Energetik und Umwelt in 2007 concluded that, by 2020, the natural gas supply of the EU and Turkey could be replaced by bio-methane without impact on the agricultural self-sufficiency for food production.
‘By combining construction, facility and resource management, financing, logistics and contracting operations in-house, agri.capital is able to efficiently provide reliable, renewable baseload power and heat to the German market,’ Nick Pople, director of Ludgate Investments says.
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