Ethical investment platform Abundance Investment announced on Wednesday that it would be launching an opportunity for consumers to invest in its ‘Build Back Better’ initiative – a programme designed to help the UK rebuild from the Coronavirus crisis by relying on ethical initiatives, in place of industries which contribute to global warming, inequality and militarism.
The company’s new opportunity is a chance to invest in the forward-looking British renewables initiative, Agrogen, which is an on-farm Anaerobic Digestion plant geared towards helping UK AD plants to transition to more sustainable feedstocks.
The plant aims to contribute as much as possible to delivering a ‘Net Zero’ future, by harnessing circular economy technology. It uses “waste materials to generate biogas, which is combusted in a Combined Heat and Power unit and boiler system to generate heat and electricity. The digestate that remains is a nutrient-rich fertiliser which is used on the farm and neighbouring farms, so nothing is wasted.” In the case of Agrogen, even the heat isn’t wasted – it is used to dry logs which are sold for domestic use.
Among its other credentials, the plant is owned and run by ‘award-winning’ farmer and Anaerobic Digestion operator Rob Greenow, and receives an income from the Feed-in Tariff and Renewable Heat Incentive.
The opportunity to get involved is being offered to investors in the form of tradeable debentures paying, a fixed rate of 7.1% p/a over a 16 year term. The goal of this offering is to raise a total sum of £2.65 million to finance upgrades to Agrogen’s existing technology, which will allow it to process a greater variety of farm waste. Abundance added that participants can start with as little as £5, and are eligible for inclusions in Abundance’s Innovative Finance ISA or SIPP.
Why should this interest us?
Speaking on the opportunity offered by investment in AD, co-founder and Managing Director of Abundance, Bruce Davis, commented,
“AD is the unsung hero of the renewable energy sector and we have been looking for an investment in this sector for many years. People like Rob are showing farmers how they can make an important contribution to our green recovery – not only through producing homegrown food, but homegrown energy too. Agrogen is a great opportunity for investors to support a circular economy solution that can help UK agriculture to build back better after the pandemic.”
Agrogen Director, Rob Greenow, added,
“Agricultural ‘waste’ is a valuable resource, providing not only renewable energy but also fertiliser which can be used on local farms. We want to lead the AD industry by improving our environmental performance even further and this new technology, already used successfully in Austria, offers a greener and better way for farms using AD to generate energy from their waste products. We’re excited about enabling like-minded investors to share our enthusiasm!”