Bio2Watt Partners With Climate Fund Managers To Fight Organic Waste Dumping In African Landfills
Bio2Watt Partners With Climate Fund Managers To Fight Organic Waste Dumping In African Landfills. Climate Fund Managers, via its managed funds Climate Investor One and Climate Investor Two, commits US$ 38.5 million in construction equity funding to Bio2Watt Energy Holdings to acquire the 4.8 megawatt Bronkhorstspruit Biogas Project in Gauteng, South Africa, and expand it to 9.8 megawatt.
South Africa currently sees approximately 3.67 million tons of waste annually not being collected and treated through formal waste collection systems, which results in illegal dumping. Organic waste earmarked for composting still ends up in landfills and, although biodegradable, creates liquids and methane gas in the breakdown process. The broken-down liquid can carry harmful chemicals from other non-biodegradable waste items into water systems and the soil. Utilising anaerobic digestion to transform organic waste into green energy and organic fertiliser provides an effective solution to the landfill problem.
Bio2Watt Energy Holdings (BEH) is a developer of waste-to-value projects with a pipeline of opportunities to generate over 330 gigawatt hours (GWh) of renewable energy for the corporate and industrial markets in South Africa and Mozambique. Each project sources organic waste streams from local areas and produces biogas for green energy production and organic fertiliser via anaerobic digestion. Anaerobic digestion is a sequence of processes by which microorganisms break down biodegradable material by removing its oxygen. The BEH pipeline projects will help alleviate the strain placed by increased pressure on South Africa and Mozambique to provide waste management services for the increasing organic waste generation. BEH represents an attractive opportunity for Climate Fund Managers by contributing to a circular economy investment platform, which will supply baseload power to clients with positive climate change mitigation benefits. Sean Thomas, CEO of BEH, echoed this sentiment: “BEH looks forward to the future with partners such as Climate Fund Managers to offer green waste-to-value solutions to industries in South Africa and the rest of the continent”.
The enhanced Bronkhorstspruit Biogas Project (BBP) plant will convert approximately 240,000 tons of organic waste per annum to renewable baseload power for offtake by BMW South Africa’s Rosslyn plant in Tshwane, Gauteng. The BBP plant will mitigate up to 48,000 tons of CO2 per annum by diverting the organic waste from landfills, which is comparable to roughly 120 million miles driven in a passenger car. The US$ 38.5 million commitment by Climate Investor ONE and Climate Investor TWO for the BBP Plant follows an initial investment of US$ 9.77 million in development funding, which enables BEH to consolidate its project pipeline into a US$ 227 million investment opportunity.
Beyond the BBP Plant commitment, BEH will focus on developing multiple waste-to-value projects in the BEH pipeline. The developer concluded a Power Purchase Agreement with South African Breweries, a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), for the first of these projects to procure 37.5 GWh of renewable electricity annually from the Cape Dairy Biogas Plant once the project reaches commercial operations. The move supports the global sustainability targets for AB InBev on climate action. AB InBev and BEH also concluded a framework agreement to explore further commercially viable opportunities.
Sebastian Surie, Regional Head for Africa at Climate Fund Managers, said: “Waste management forms a significant challenge for many African countries, resulting in water pollution and emissions of toxic gases, therewith negatively affecting climate and public health. The Climate Investor One and Climate Investor Two investments will allow us to build a waste-to-value platform for Africa, tapping into the significant business opportunity that the sector has to offer, whilst at the same time providing a mitigant for these issues. We look forward to embarking on this journey with our partner BEH.”
