Elevion Group has signed an agreement to fully acquire the Italian biogas and biomethane specialist BTS Biogas. The Amsterdam-based company, part of the Czech energy group ČEZ, is buying all shares of BTS Holdings Italy from the American BTS Bioenergy Europe. The deal still needs to be approved by the Italian competition authority and energy regulator.

BTS Biogas has been building, maintaining, and operating biogas and biomethane plants for 25 years. The company is active in Italy, as well as in France, the United Kingdom, and other European countries, and employs around one hundred specialists. In addition to the acquisition of the company itself, Elevion is also acquiring a 51 percent stake in a portfolio of nine biomethane plants in Northern Italy. Three of these are already operational, while the remaining six are currently being converted from biogas to biomethane production. Once fully operational, the portfolio is expected to yield a combined capacity of approximately 30 million standard cubic meters of biomethane per year.

Largest investment to date in biomethane

Elevion itself calls the acquisition the largest investment the company has ever made in the biogas and biomethane sector. It fits into the strategy to grow into an integrated platform for the production of green gas, from engineering and construction to the operation and maintenance of installations. By combining BTS’s EPC expertise with its own O&M activities, Elevion aims to be able to serve the entire biomethane value chain, including installations running on technology from other parties.

The acquisition aligns with an ambition previously expressed by Elevion: to achieve an annual production of approximately 70 million standard cubic meters of renewable gas by 2030. With the new Italian portfolio, the company is taking a significant step towards this goal.

Consolidation in the European biomethane sector

The acquisition fits into a broader trend of consolidation in the European biogas sector, in which financial and strategic investors are becoming increasingly active. For the Netherlands, the deal is primarily relevant because Elevion Group is based here, even though the operational focus of this transaction lies on Italy. It demonstrates that Dutch parties play a role in scaling up the European biomethane market, a sector that is set to grow significantly in the coming years due to regulations such as RED III and the RePowerEU plan.

Source: Eleviongroup.com

^{Photo: Vilkasss – Pixabay.com}