Energy Works secures international investors for £200m green power plant

The announcement by engineer Spencer Group means construction of the £200m Energy Works scheme in Hull will begin in January 2016, with the 25MW net power output facility due to be operational by January 2018.

Hull-based Spencer said it has steered the Energy Works project since its conception in 2010, making a multi-million pound investment through Energy Works (Hull) Ltd to take the scheme to its delivery phase.

It added that the development will now be funded by three new equity partners in Energy Works (Hull) Ltd - Bioenergy Infrastructure Group (BIG), an independent power producer established to invest in the construction of new biomass and energy from waste (EfW) plants in the UK; Noy Fund, an investment group based in Israel focused on major infrastructure and energy projects; and John Hancock, through its affiliate Hancock Natural Resource Group (HNRG), a long-established timber, agriculture, and renewable energy investment management company.

Spencer said it will remain a shareholder in the business, to ensure ongoing local involvement in the facility’s management and operations.

The group said the project has also been awarded a grant of almost £20m from the European Regional Development Fund, in recognition of its innovative processes, the role it will play in pioneering greener and cleaner technologies and its contribution to regeneration in Hull.

Charlie Spencer OBE, executive chairman of Spencer Group, said: “We are delighted to have reached financial close and to have agreed a contract for the construction of Energy Works, which will enable us to move into the delivery phase of this pioneering development.

“A development of this scale and complexity naturally poses many challenges and all those involved are to be congratulated for their commitment and perseverance in taking the project through to this point.

“We are very pleased to have assembled an impressive group of partners to fund and deliver Energy Works, enabling us to establish a facility with outstanding green credentials in our home city, which is becoming recognised as the UK’s leading centre for renewable technologies.”