GCP : GCP raises cash and invests in Biomass plant
GCP Infrastructure has simultaneously announced that it has raised £70m from investors and that it is investing £20m into GCP Biomass 4 Limited.
They have placed 63.6m shares at 111.75p, raising gross proceeds of £70m. The announcement says the placing was “significantly oversubscribed”.
GCP Biomass 4 Limited is being used to provide a loan secured on a 20.2MWe wood-fuelled biomass combined heat and power plant on a site at Widnes, Merseyside. The loan they provide will sit alongside an equivalent loan from the Green Investment Bank. The money to service the loan will come from income arising from the Renewables Obligation Certificates (issued by Ofgem) and the Renewable Heat Incentive (made by Ofgem) generated by the operation of the Plant, and from the sale of electricity.
The project is said to be the largest waste wood renewable energy plant in the North West and, over its lifetime, is estimated to save around 1.3m tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions and produce enough electricity to power the equivalent of 35,000 homes.