Profile: Venture that’s making wheys in the green energy industry

Mike Dunn sees Yorkshire as a key area for his green energy projects and he’s particularity excited about his latest scheme - to produce energy from world-famous Yorkshire Wensleydale cheese.
Mike Dunns Iona Capital has just signed an energy deal with the Wensleydale Creamery, just one of the companys many  commitments to YorkshireMike Dunns Iona Capital has just signed an energy deal with the Wensleydale Creamery, just one of the companys many  commitments to Yorkshire
Mike Dunns Iona Capital has just signed an energy deal with the Wensleydale Creamery, just one of the companys many commitments to Yorkshire

Well, not the cheese itself. Mr Dunn’s firm, Iona Capital, has signed a deal with Wensleydale Creamery to produce over 10,000 MWh of energy per year from whey, a by-product of the cheese making process. That is enough power to heat 800 homes a year.

Iona’s Leeming Biogas plant in North Yorkshire will process the whey and turn it into nearly one million cubic meters of green gas.

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Wensleydale Creamery, the maker of Yorkshire Wensleydale cheese, produces 4,000 tonnes of cheese every year at its dairy in Hawes in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales.

Mr Dunn, co-founder of Iona, said this latest partnership with Wensleydale shows the firm’s commitment to Yorkshire.

“There’s a buzz in Yorkshire,” he said.

“The region is very much promoting green energy and it’s very aware of climate change. That’s a really big button.

“Yorkshire also has very good infrastructure with great links into the gas network.

“The employee base has a lot of good, educated people.”

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Iona Capital, which invests in environmentally friendly energy plants, opened a new office in York a year ago to expand its growing portfolio of biogas infrastructure assets in the region.

Currently, Iona has £75m of investments in nine facilities in Yorkshire, which generate enough electricity and heat to supply around 39,000 households per annum.

The facilities generate renewable energy which contributes considerably to the carbon savings.

Iona estimates its carbon savings are equivalent to 40,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

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The York office has a team of 25 in the region, with another 13 employed indirectly to support the business.

Mr Dunn said: “Yorkshire is an increasingly important market for us.

“We not only have our portfolio of facilities in the county but also investors, such as West Yorkshire Local Authority Pension Fund, are excited by our regionally based approach to renewable energy infrastructure.

“York is also a great location within the region as it has excellent transport links which means we can easily visit our sites across the region and of course London is only two hours away by train.”

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The office is based in Westminster Place, which is part of York Business Park.

Iona’s portfolio of investments stretches from Brocklesby, near Hull, to Leeming outside Northallerton, Gravel Pit, just north of York, and New Mill, Wray House, Washfold, Home Farm, Westholme and Howla Hay, which are all near Thirsk.

It also owns and operates another 13 facilities outside Yorkshire.

These plants generate biogas from agricultural and food waste, which is used to generate electricity or heat businesses and homes.

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In Yorkshire, Iona has teamed up with a number of the county’s best known food and drink producers to safely remove their waste and convert it to energy.

Many can not be named due to commercial sensitivity reasons, but Iona’s partners include R&R Ice Cream and Brocklesby Biogas which takes restaurant waste from Hull.

Iona collects ice cream waste from R&R’s factory in Leeming Bar, typically when the ice cream vats are cleaned out.

R&R originally had rights to put its waste into the sewage system, but following discussions with Yorkshire Water, the two firms opted to follow the environmentally friendly option of converting the waste into energy.

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“We take feed stock, process it and produce methane from it,” said Mr Dunn.

“The methane can be converted to electricity or fed into the gas network operated by NGN.

“We put the client near to the producers.

“Yorkshire is a great place for us because land price is relatively low, it has good connectivity to gas and electricity networks and good access to feed stocks. Northern gas network has encouraged green energy producers and has proved very flexible in accommodating new suppliers.”

Iona’s primary driver is to target carbon reduction, thereby reducing climate change and global temperature increases.

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It estimates that its current £75m investment in Yorkshire will double over time.

Mr Dunn said that local authorities across Yorkshire have been very supportive.

“Local authorities councillors often sit on pension fund boards and they encourage their professional investors to choose funds such as ours,” he said.

“There is a positive environment in Yorkshire, which has been supported by the Leeds Climate Commission who are actively encouraging renewable and energy efficiency investment.

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“Local authorities are much more aware of what they are investing in.

“Green financing is an easy investment to make.”

Mr Dunn was born near Liverpool, but moved to Harrogate when he was nine.

He now lives in York, which has been his home for the past 10 years.

“My mum’s side of the family all come from Harrogate.

“She worked at the Ministry of Defence in Harrogate, which has since closed down, and my father was in The Royal Air Force,” he said.

When his mother became ill, he returned to Yorkshire.

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“That pulled me back and my wife got a job at York University. We moved back for a lot of reasons and we had a desire to get out of London,” he said,

“I’ve always been drawn back to Yorkshire. It’s where I was brought up and where most of my friends are.

“It’s a good, down to earth, no-nonsense culture you have in Yorkshire.”

Curriculum Vitae:

Where were you born – Just outside Liverpool

Date of birth – April 27, 1961

School – Harrogate Granby High School

Uni/Further education – London University, BSc in Physics: Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, London Business School (Masters in Finance) and Prince of Wales Sustainable Business Course, Cambridge

First job – Royal Signals

Car driven – Audi Q3

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Favourite film – Q Planes, an interwar film with a great cast of actors and precursor to The Avengers (Steed, Purdy and Emma Peel Avengers – not Marvel)

Favourite holiday destination – Skiing. Chamonix in particular

Last book read – Travels with Charlie by John Steinbeck