Lord Rothschild and Prince Charles launch alternative energy venture

Lord Rothschild's investment trust RIT Capital Partners has led a band of high profile investors - including the Duchy of Cornwall and supermarket Sainsbury's - into a £65 million new energy venture.

The group has committed more than £65 million to Tamar Energy, which launched today.  Tamar is an innovative company focused on producing energy from organic waste. 

It plans to develop a UK network of over 40 anaerobic digestion plants to generate 100MW of green electricity over the next five years.

Alongside RIT Capital Partners, a number of international and UK blue chip companies and investors have grouped together to support the venture.  

The investor group is led by RIT Capital Partners and Fajr Capital, which is backed some heavyweight shareholders including the Abu Dhabi Investment Council and the government of Brunei Darussalam. They are joined by Prince Charles, Sustainable Technology Investments, Low Carbon Limited and the management team of Tamar Energy, which is headed by executive chairman Alan Lovell.

Sainsbury's is a strategic partner on the venture, and as well as investing in Tamar Energy the supermarket giant - a lead user of anaerobic digestion - will offer its retailing expertise.

'The development of renewable generating capacity is central to the UK Government's energy strategy.  We are delighted to have assembled such a strong group of partners, investors and management, to build and develop this important industry in the United Kingdom,' Lord Rothschild, the chair of RIT, commented about the launch.

Lovell pointed out the underdevelopment of anaerobic digestion in Britain is driven by a historical lack of financing for the sector, but the industry could eventually thrive if steered in the right direction.

He explained: 'Tamar Energy will be well capitalised by investors, with a pure focus on producing energy from organic waste, rather than as an adjunct to a waste management business. This is a game changing investment which will enable our existing team to capitalise on the substantial pipeline of projects that Adgen has developed -  allowing us to rapidly to achieve our scale objectives.'