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37 min ago 2 min read
Italy’s biomethane sector continues to expand rapidly, supported by new financing instruments, grid connections and auctions.
The Retina biomethane platform recently drew a €355m financing package for the development of its second cluster of greenfield plants in Southern Italy, according to UniCredit.
The 10 greenfield plants, promoted by Retina SCA with Eren Industries and Actarus Renewables, will run on agricultural biomass and livestock waste, producing biomethane which will feed directly into the national gas grid, alongside biogenic CO2 recovery and organic fertilisers.
The financing follows the €238m transaction led by UniCredit for the first cluster of plants.
Elsewhere network tech firm Italgas has activated a new connection in Aprilia, in the Latina province south of Rome, which will allow 4 million cubic metres to be injected into the distribution network each year.
Last month Swiss renewable energy company Axpo injected the first gas produced by its , southern Italy, into the country’s national grid.
Another market-enhancing move saw six bidders in Italy’s first commercial biomethane auction awarded 6 TWh of the gas offered by state-owned GSE for delivery between October and next September.
The 3,000 GWh transport lot was awarded to Enel Global Trading, Societa Gas Rimini and Eni, with each shipper securing a 1,000 GWh share.
The ‘other uses’ lot was assigned to Burgo Energia, Iren Mercato and Axpo Italy, who were similarly awarded equal shares.
Other developments have seen Italian paper manufacturer Fedrigoni group and fiber-based specialty materials firm Ahlstrom .
In April, Italian biomethane plant developer Bionext Infrastructure received from various European banks to convert 15 existing biogas plants to 100% renewable biomethane.
