The UK biofuels industry is set to explode with a £250m new ethanol production plant on Teesside.
Ensus, the concern building the facility, has secured the funds from private equity groups the Carlyle Group and Riverstone Holdings. There is also £150m of debt finance.
Building work is expected to commence in a few months at the Wilton International site near Middlesbrough and full production should reach 400 million litres a year in 2009.
From 2010, the UK will require five percent of all fuel to be bio-sourced. It will also mandate a 2.5 percent biofuel requirement to commence in 2008, which is projected to reduce overall carbon emissions by 500,000 tonnes per year.
British Sugar is also in the process of building a smaller 70 million litre plant.
The announcement follows-on from the recent EU agreement for mandatory ten percent targets for biofuel usage in transport by 2020.
Arthur Hill, NFU combinable crops board chairman, said the announcement was a real boost for the domestic biofuels industry,
“To hear that a major bioethanol facility is to be built in the UK is excellent news,” he said, “This will open up new markets and give farmers the opportunity to make a real contribution to reducing carbon emissions and tackling climate change.”
