The first development, Ridham Dock, located in Kent, is a waste wood pellet heat combustion facility that will provide 80 MW of electricity to the UK grid.
The developer, Renewable Energy Projects Limited, expects the plant to be completed by March 2015.
The second project is an £80 million, 15MW, combined heat and power plant in Lisahally, Belfast. Similar to Ridham Dock, the project will secure the majority of its fuel from waste wood supplies.
The project, developed by Evermore Renewable Energy, has secured £20 million in funding from the UK’s government’s Green Investment Bank and is expected to be able to provide power for 25,000 homes.
“The UK biomass market continues to weather a real period of economic uncertainty”, said Jatin Sharma, Business Development Leader, GCube.
“Despite the recent interest from the fund and investor community, best demonstrated by PensionDanmark’s investment in Lincolnshire and Gravis Capital Partner’s interest in the Lisahally project, the future financial commitments remains a real unknown,” Sharma said.
“It’s because of this that we were particularly keen to develop a programme that provided investors with the confidence they need for financing the projects. At GCube, we can manage construction and investor risks, leaving investors free to focus on making the energy generating infrastructure really work,” he added.
In a written statement, the company emphasized it only backs projects that follow the DECC's guidelines that demand biomass proposals prove they depend on a sustainable fuel supply.
“Ultimately, the biomass market in the UK has great potential, including being able to meet up to 30% of the UK’s 2020 climate target and we look forward to continuing to support the sector in the coming years,” Sharma said.
In June 2013, GCube increased its biomass and geothermal construction underwriting capacity to $250 million, to meet with increasing market demand.
One of the first projects to benefit from GCube’s coverage was the 36 MW Mackenzie Bioenergy Project in British Columbia.
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