Foresight and the UK Green Investment Bank (GIB) have announced the investment of £20m into the construction of the Evermore Renewable Energy station.

The 15.8MW, wood-fuelled combined heat and power (CHP) station, will be built on a 10-acre site in L'Derry Port and Harbour Commissioners land at Lisahally, Northern Ireland.

The Foresight managed fund, UK Waste Resources & Energy Fund (UKWREI), in which GIB is the cornerstone investor, has made the investment, which is the first GIB funded project in Northern Ireland.

Foresight has sourced co-investment from GCP Infrastructure Fund Limited (GCP) and Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor A/S (BWSC) and worked alongside Investec Bank and Eksport Kredit Fonden (EKF) in structuring and financing the project.

The Evermore project, which is expected to become operational during 2015, is forecast to be the largest renewable energy project in Northern Ireland, increasing the amount of renewable electricity currently generated in Northern Ireland by approximately 10%.

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Over the expected 20 year lifetime of the project, it is forecast to supply renewable electricity equivalent to the needs of more than 25,000 homes a year, create 200 construction jobs and more than 20 full time jobs once operational. Over the project life, it is forecast to save two million tonnes of wood from going to landfill and is expected to deliver a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of around 3.7 million tonnes.

The electricity will be supplied to the national grid and the heat output will be used by an integrated wood drying facility, supplying fuel for new biomass boilers within Northern Ireland. The project will be fuelled by around 110,000 tonnes per annum of wood secured under a long-term fuel supply contract from Stobart Biomass.

Shaun Kingsbury, chief executive, UK Green Investment Bank, said: "The announcement will substantially increase Northern Ireland's renewable energy capacity. Not only will the project save the same amount of carbon as taking around 77,000 cars off the road, it will also make use of over two million tonnes of wood, a valuable energy resource that would otherwise have gone to landfill.

"Our mission is to crowd in private sector capital, so I'm especially pleased to see that every pound of GIB investment brought in more than £3 of private funding."

(CD/JP)