Manufacturing & Supply Chain

Energia Group, one of Ireland’s leading energy providers and infrastructure investors, has announced a commercial agreement to process 70,000 tonnes of Panda organic waste annually, at Energia’s €50 million new bioenergy plant currently being completed at Huntstown in north County Dublin. The overall processing agreement is expected to be worth up to a total of €50 million to Energia.

Panda will begin supplying organic waste to Energia starting from June 2019 as the environmentally friendly new plant begins its commissioning phases. The waste will come from Panda’s black and brown bin collection services across the Greater Dublin Area.

Panda is Ireland’s leading waste management and recycling group. Energia is a leading Irish energy provider and infrastructure investor across Renewables, Flexible Generation and Customer Solutions including electricity, gas and smart energy management systems.

Energia’s new Bioenergy Plant, located beside the company’s existing two major power stations at Huntstown in north Dublin, will begin full operation by the end of 2019 and will generate 4.8 Megawatts of electricity per hour.  Work is underway to connect the new plant to the national grid’s electricity distribution system.

The plant will use anaerobic digestion to convert organic waste such as food waste, into methane rich biogas which will then be used to generate renewable electricity.  Elements of the material remaining after the process can be used as organic fertiliser for crops and gardens. When fully operational, it will be one of the largest anaerobic digestion plants on the island of Ireland. The project supports Energia’s ambition to be the leading producer of bioenergy in the all-island energy market.

Garrett Donnellan (pictured right), Head of Corporate Development, Energia Group, said: “This is a really important agreement for Energia as a leading investor in renewable energy technologies. It will help Ireland to meet its climate change and carbon reduction objectives. Energia is contributing strongly to Ireland’s national sustainability agenda by providing advanced solutions which meet the needs of society and the economy.

“Our new Bioenergy plant in Huntstown will remove organic waste from the environment, converting it into energy through natural means and providing this power to homes and businesses throughout Ireland. This is just one part of our overall strategy and contribution where Energia already supplies approximately 21% of Ireland’s total wind power from 22 wind farms including owned and invested capacity and wind farm offtake agreements.  For the past 5 years we have provided customers with electrical energy that it is 100% renewable.

“To date we have invested over €1 billion in the energy market across the island of Ireland. Energia’s new Huntstown Bioenergy Plant is indicative of our continued commitment to the development of green and renewable energy sources for the communities that we serve.

“We’re delighted to have the opportunity to partner with Panda, a leading and long established waste management company who share our commitment to sustainability. The processing agreement with Panda will represent 70% of the overall capacity of the Huntstown plant, and we look forward to further increasing the intake of organic waste to provide even more renewable energy to communities across Dublin.”

Brian McCabe (pictured left), Managing Director of Panda, said: “Our new contract with Energia will further underpin our role as one of Ireland’s leading providers of waste management and recycling solutions where our customers can have total confidence in the value of recycling for the benefit of our environment. The conversion of waste to energy through the use of anaerobic digestion is one of the most innovative, logical and clean methods of energy production which is sustainable in terms of waste management, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and provides power for homes, businesses and our economy. Energia is a pioneer in renewable energy technologies and we look forward to working with them into the future.”