In the United States (US), dairy renewable natural gas (RNG) developer California Bioenergy LLC (CalBio) has announced a funding partnership, of up to US$500 million, with Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. and its institutional partners (Brookfield) to scale CalBio’s growth in renewable natural gas (RNG) and other waste-to-energy opportunities.
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Brookfield Renewable is the flagship listed renewable power company of Canada-headed Brookfield Asset Management Inc, a leading global alternative asset manager with approximately US$750 billion of assets under management.
CalBio has established a market-leading position partnering with dairy farmers to design, build, own and operate waste-to-energy (WtE) projects.
CalBio is currently capturing fugitive dairy methane and converting it into renewable natural gas (RNG) from over fifty operational manure digesters.
Independently, and in partnership with leading energy and utility companies, the captured biomethane is used as compressed natural gas (bioCNG) to replace diesel and converted to electric fuel to replace gasoline.
Accelerate the next growth phase
Brookfield is pursuing this investment through the Brookfield Global Transition Fund I (BGTF), which is the largest fund in the world focused on the energy transition.
CalBio’s successful and proven track record combined with Brookfield’s global reach, strong commercial and industrial relationships, and capital will accelerate the Company’s next phase of growth and continue the expansion of decarbonization solutions and reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
This partnership with Brookfield is another positive step forward in expanding our carbon-negative renewable natural gas and electricity businesses. Our methane capture and refining projects are delivering significant environmental benefits, improving economics for our farm partners, and supplying clean-burning diesel and gasoline replacement fuels. With Brookfield as an investor and a strategic partner, we intend to continue to expand our important work with agricultural feedstock partners to produce more carbon-negative fuels and food that clean and feed the planet, said N. Ross Buckenham, Chairman, and CEO of CalBio.
Over double RNG production
With Brookfield’s funding and a supportive agricultural carbon price, CalBio plans to more than double RNG production over the next five years with the continued expansion of its California digester projects and selective expansion into other US States.
CalBio is currently operating and/or developing over 100 dairy digester projects in California and through its affiliates – Midwest Bioenergy, Northwest Bioenergy, and Southwest Bioenergy – is developing projects in other western states.
In total, Calbio says that it is currently reducing emissions by over 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2eq) per year, and with expanding state and federal carbon credit programs, it is targeting two to three million tonnes per year of CO2eq of reductions.
We are thrilled to partner with CalBio to expand its production of renewable natural gas. Our transition investing strategy is to identify businesses that are driving a meaningful decarbonization benefit and to support them with capital and expertise to accelerate the rollout of their infrastructure. CalBio represents a high-quality entry point to the renewable natural gas market, and we look forward to working with them to scale the business, said Jehangir Vevaina, Chief Investment Officer of Brookfield Renewable.
Stifel acted as the sole financial advisor to CalBio on this strategic partnership with Brookfield.
