Start-up company secures €6m in funding

In Brussels, Innogy Venture Capital, European financial investor Gimv and other partners have signed an agreement to invest in the start-up company GreenWatt S.A.

GreenWatt designs, operates and builds turnkey biogas plants for the generation of renewable heat and power from biodegradable waste materials without the need for slurry.

The €6 million investment will help to GreenWatt to expand its operations internationally.

'The distributed renewable production of energy will become increasingly important with the restructuring of the energy supply – therefore we have decided to support GreenWatt,' RWE Innogy's CEO Fritz Vahrenholt said in a statement.

GreenWatt's technology involves a multi-stage digestion phase without the use of oxygen, and the leftovers can be used as bio-fertiliser.

Crispin Leick, managing director of Innogy Venture Capital, describes GreenWatt's technology as 'a robust, highly efficient and automated technology with great potential'.

Detlef Schreiber, CEO of the cooperating company CEE, says: 'From out point of view there is a great international market for biogas plants of this size. Against the background of rising energy and heat costs the use of self-generated energy will become a more and more important factor in the future. We are confident that our investment in GreenWatt will open us good return prospects in this section of technology development.'