Waste and recycling firm gets £4m from Government to move into energy recovery
Elaine Brass
14th December 2009
New Earth Solutions Ltd, a UK company dealing in waste treatment and waste recovery, has received £4 million investment from the Carbon Trust to support its move into energy recovery from waste.
The funding is coming from Carbon Trust Investments Limited and is part of an £18 million fund provided by the Department of Energy and Climate Change to speed Britain’s move towards a low carbon economy. It will enable New Earth to build on its existing landfill diversion operations and look to develop gasification and pyrolysis technologies to convert waste-derived fuel into electricity. New Earth’s first energy recovery power plant is expected to commence trading in 2010.
The seven year-old company, which has up until now focussed on operating waste treatment contracts on behalf of local authorities, claims to have pioneered ‘enclosed composting’ and biological treatment in the UK through its use of ‘Advanced Bio Stabilisation System’ technology, a biological treatment process that uses sophisticated air handling equipment to prevent odour or emissions of bio-aerosols associated with other waste treatment processes.
The Carbon Trust investment completes New Earth’s second closing in its ongoing £15 million equity fundraising announced in August 2009, raising £9 million to date. This follows a £5 million investment in September 2009 by AIM-listed cleantech investment company Ludgate Environmental Fund Limited.
Jonathan Bryers, partner at CT Investment Partners, the fund management advisory business that advises Carbon Trust Investments on its investment activity, said: “The waste industry in the UK is currently evolving from a logistics and landfill industry to one based on efficient resource management and energy generation – we believe New Earth is well positioned to capitalise on this exciting opportunity”.
Chris Cox, managing director of New Earth, added: “We are delighted to announce that Carbon Trust has become the second investor in our current equity fund-raising process. The Carbon Trust is a highly respected and high profile investor and will add significant value as we continue the expansion of our waste treatment and energy recovery facilities throughout the UK.”
New Earth Energy says it will employ advanced thermal technologies to support the use of waste-derived fuels for renewable power plants and combined heat and power schemes for public and private customers.
This month, the Carbon Trust announced it was also backing UK solar energy company, Whitfield Solar, with £2.7 million to help the company expand global sales.