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Infinis
UKUtilities
Overview
Infinis had a strong year, generating a value gain of £61 million, driven by higher than forecast levels of exported power from its captured landfill methane business.
Strategically, Infinis is ideally placed to scale its electricity generation capabilities by developing solar and battery projects on brownfield and landfill sites, which offer attractive fundamentals including expedited grid connectivity. The company is making material progress on its 1.4GW pipeline of solar and battery storage assets. During the year, Infinis commenced construction on 150MW of solar capacity and secured planning consent for an additional 134MW.
Despite ongoing industry-wide planning challenges, the company obtained approvals for a further seven solar projects in the second half of the year. Infinis maintains a confident outlook for its solar platform, supported by a strong pipeline and favourable market tailwinds.
- Captured methane: 255 MW across 104 sites
- Solar: 103 MW across 4 sites
- Flexible generation: 173 MW across 29 sites
This unique combination of green baseload power, renewable assets and flexible generation mean Infinis is ideally placed to respond to growing electricity demand, increasing energy market volatility and to play a key role in the UK’s route to decarbonisation and greenhouse gas reduction.
Recent developments
Infinis had a strong year, generating a value gain of £61 million, driven by higher than forecast levels of exported power from its captured landfill methane business.
Strategically, Infinis is ideally placed to scale its electricity generation capabilities by developing solar and battery projects on brownfield and landfill sites, which offer attractive fundamentals including expedited grid connectivity. The company is making material progress on its 1.4GW pipeline of solar and battery storage assets. During the year, Infinis commenced construction on 150MW of solar capacity and secured planning consent for an additional 134MW.
Despite ongoing industry-wide planning challenges, the company obtained approvals for a further seven solar projects in the second half of the year. Infinis maintains a confident outlook for its solar platform, supported by a strong pipeline and favourable market tailwinds.
Investment rationale
The investment in Infinis is foremost a yield play. Its front-ended cashflows balance other recent investments by the Company in more growth-oriented businesses. Revenues are underpinned by the inflation-linked UK Renewables Obligation Certificate (“ROC”) regime until 2027. Infinis could also become a platform to make new investments in activities such as distributed power generation from other gas sources, distributed energy storage by exploiting the business’s spare engine and grid connection capacity, and additional landfill gas sites.
Infinis and its market
Infinis is the largest generator of electricity from LFG in the UK, with a portfolio of 121 landfill sites and total installed capacity of over 300MW. LFG is produced by decomposing organic matter in landfill sites. If released into the atmosphere unchecked, LFG contributes to pollution and is a potent greenhouse gas. By extracting LFG from landfill sites, Infinis fulfils an essential role in helping landfill operators meet their environmental compliance obligations. By using the collected LFG to generate electricity, Infinis supplies distribution networks with a consistent source of baseload power.
Sustainability
Infinis’ activities support the UK’s journey to net zero in several key ways:
- Methane is a greenhouse gas. Methane emissions cause 25% of global warming today, with a major surge over the past 15 years. By capturing methane from landfill sites and disused coal mines, Infinis fulfils an essential role in helping landfill operators meet their environmental compliance obligations and contributing to the UK’s reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. By using the captured methane to generate electricity, Infinis supplies distribution networks with a consistent source of green baseload power.
- The government views solar power as key to achieving UK energy independence, with plans to deliver up to 70GW by 2035. Infinis’ ability to deliver solar, including on challenging brownfield and landfill sites, increases the contribution of renewables to the UK’s generation mix. Its continued investment in renewable energy is helping the UK reduce its reliance on fossil fuels.
- Flexible generation provides support for the grid as intermittent renewable generation increases, enabling a stable supply of electricity to UK homes and businesses to be maintained.
Infinis' broader sustainability strategy revolves around creating value for its stakeholders, through protecting health, wellbeing and safety, reducing carbon emissions, eliminating exploitative work and improving diversity and inclusion.
Key facts>130 operational sites531 MW of installed capacity217,000 tonnes of captured methane in FY24
