DIF Capital Partners is happy to announce the purchase of an 80 percent ownership in Dombasle Énergie, a greenfield waste-to-energy project in Dombasle-sur-Meurthe, France. DIF Infrastructure VI, along with Solvay (10%) and Veolia (10%), is making the investment.
Three coal-fired boilers will be replaced with a new boiler room with two furnaces that will burn 350,000 tonnes of refuse-derived fuel created from various sorts of non-hazardous trash that cannot be recovered per year.
The EUR 225 million capex project is expected to be operational by the end of 2024, employing over 1,000 people directly and indirectly. The project will burn 344 million tonnes of coal per year and generate 181 megawatts of thermal power and 17.5 megawatts of electrical power from a steam turbine that will be utilised in the industrial process. Dombasle Énergie, the first project of its kind in France, will I reduce the site’s carbon footprint by nearly half (240,000 tonnes CO2 reduction) per year and (ii) provide a new outlet for non-recyclable garbage that will now be converted into green energy.
“With increasing pressure on landfill capacity and concerted community efforts to reduce landfill levels, waste-to-energy represents a significant opportunity for the generation of affordable green power across the globe. We are delighted to partner with Solvay as well as Veolia in this ambitious project which will significantly reduce Solvay’s carbon footprint as well as reuse 350,000 tonnes of non-recyclable waste, of which otherwise the majority would have been landfilled. Renewable energy investments are an essential part of DIF’s investment mandate, evidencing the company’s desire to positively contribute to a more sustainable future” said Partner and head of DIF’s core infrastructure investment initiatives, Gijs Voskuyl.
Credit Agricole Leasing & Factoring’s subsidiary Unifergie and Bpifrance provided long-term non-recourse loan financing for the project. The Grand Est region and the French environmental regulator ADEME, as well as other private partners, supported Dombasle Énergie.
For the sponsors, De Pardieu Brocas Maffei (legal) and H3P (finance) served as advisors on the transaction. Herbert Smith Freehills (legal), SETEC (technical), and Marsh advised the lenders (insurance). Sigée Finance (model audit), Willkie Farr & Gallagher (tax audit), and ESTER were among the other consultants (hedging).
