Irish Infrastructure Firm Puts €30M into German Biodiesel

27 October 2005

Business World. NTR, a private sector developer, financier and operator of public and environmental infrastructure in Ireland, has made an initial €30-million (US$36.5-million) investment in Emerald Biodiesel, a German biodiesel company.

Emerald Bio-diesel GmbH, in which NTR is the major shareholder, will shortly begin construction of an integrated oil mill and biodiesel facility in the state of Mecklenburg Vorpommern, approximately 100 kilometers north of Berlin.

The plant will have an initial capacity of 50 million liters (13.2 million gallons US) and is scheduled to be online before the end of 2006. Capacity will increase to 150 million liters (40 million gallons US) by the end of 2008.

Locally grown rapeseed will be used as the main feedstock to be supplied under a long-term contract by the region’s leading agricultural co-operative. The biodiesel is destined for the German transport market and arrangements are already in place with large transport companies.

Germany is the leading producer of biodiesel in Europe, with installed capacity projected to exceed 2 billion liters (528.4 million gallons US) in 2006.

NTR—which began its life as National Toll Roads, a developer and operator of toll roads—also holds a 51% interest in Airtricity, a joint venture with Future Wind Partnership. Airtricity is Ireland’s leading renewable energy company and is currently developing wind farms in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, UK and US.