Luxembourg-headed private equity investment fund PEARL Infrastructure Capital (PEARL) has announced that it and Wismar Pellets have reached financial close on the Bioenergie Wismar Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant project (Bioenergie Wismar) being developed in northern Germany. Located at the Port of Wismar, it is PEARL’s first German transaction.
Co-developed by Macquarie’s Green Investment Group (GIG) and Wismar Pellets, the biomass-fired combined heat and power (CHP) plant will generate up to 18 MWe of electricity and 27 MWth of renewable heat.
As majority shareholder PEARL will now take the project into construction with Wismar Pellets. Macquarie Capital, the project’s sole financial advisor, raised a long-term project finance debt facility to support construction which was provided by Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW).
The greenfield project is PEARL’s first investment in Germany and is an important solution for decarbonizing heat and industrial processes.
The project’s biomass fuel supply is anchored by Wismar Pellets and ILIM Nordic Timbers, who will provide bark material as a by-product of its sawmill operations.
Wismar Pellets and ILIM will also contract for the project’s steam output and will utilize the heat at their neighboring facilities for pellets production and timber drying respectively,
A 20 year EEG Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) for the electricity output was secured in November 2020. Commercial operations are anticipated to commence in Q4 2022.
The Bioenergie Wismar greenfield project sits at the core of PEARL’s investment strategy in environmental infrastructure in Europe. We are delighted to bring our technical and financial expertise to support the combined production of baseload renewable electricity and renewable heat in Germany, commented Jean-Christophe Guimard, PEARL’s Chief Operating Officer.
Fifth largest biomass market
According to Fitch Solutions Global Biomass Power Report 2021, Germany is the fifth largest biomass market in the world, with the technology currently accounting for just over 10 percent of the country’s total electricity generation mix.
Bioenergy is also playing a critical role in the decarbonization of industry, producing roughly 99 percent of all renewable heat used in industrial processes across Europe according to Bioenergy Europe.
Through the generation of renewable heat and power, Wismar Biomass Plant is anticipated to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 47 000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2eq) per annum.
