Arensis Corp, a US-headed international provider of off-grid energy generation solutions, technologies and services has revealed that it has acquired Verdo Renewables Ltd's wood pellet plant in Grangemouth, Scotland. Although the value of the deal has not been disclosed, the acquisition is part of a GBP 50 million (≈ EUR 54.34 million) UK investment plan providing Arensis with a sustainable, carbon neutral supply of fuel for biomass-fired installations in the UK.
Arensis provides off-grid renewable energy generation solutions to customers around the world using biomass energy generators from German manufacturer and sister company Entrade Energiesysteme AG. Arensis has installed 30 MW thermal and electrical capacity in 215 installations globally of which around 200 are remotely operated and maintained by the company.
Secure value chain for UK growth
With 185 power systems in operation across the UK, Arensis currently delivers 85 percent of all small-scale biomass generation in the country. These installations depend on a reliable supply of clean and sustainable fuel. With an annual capacity of 60 000 tonnes, the Verdo pellet plant enables the company to meet growing customer demand.
According to Arensis, the pellets are high quality – packing significantly more energy than some imported pellets – and are entirely renewable and sourced from local, sustainably grown virgin wood.
This development is really significant for our business growth in the UK, and for our ability to help UK companies cut their emissions. Verdo’s pellets are by far the best we tested in the UK, offering about 20 percent more energy over imported pellets. There is a lot of biomass generation that relies on importing biomass from abroad, undermining sustainability and compromising efficiency due to pellet deterioration in transit, said Julien Uhlig, CEO of Arensis and Entrade.
The acquisition is described as an important part of the company’s growth plan for the UK, ensuring a reliable supply of renewable fuel. Arensis will also install 30 Entrade biomass generators at the pellet plant site itself to power manufacturing operation, reducing the carbon footprint further.
By bringing the Verdo pellet plant into Arensis’ portfolio, we can streamline the entire process of off-grid energy generation, integrate fuel production, technology deployment, logistics and project management into one sustainable, country level operation, explained Stuart Banks, EVP of UK Operations and former Plant Director of the Grangemouth site.
The company will maintain all jobs at the Verdo plant and hopes to boost job numbers in the near future.
We don’t believe in shipping fuel around the world when ]ocal resources are available. We are committed to using local, sustainable sources for our biomass, reducing the transport carbon footprint and maintaining local jobs, said Uhlig.
Arensis also operates a sizeable biomass research institute at the Knowsley Industrial Park near Liverpool.
Thls site meets our needs in terms of production but also provides partieularly reliable feedstocks. This is important because having a good baseline product allows us to carry out better comparative research on new feedstocks, especially waste products which we want to help customers turn into biomass fuel. The UK has now become our business and technology testing site, ended Julien Uhlig.
