The loan was provided through NRCan’s Clean Fuels Fund as part of a $1.5 billion five-year plan to support building or expanding clean fuel production facilities to meet Canada’s goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, Generate Upcycle says.
The London, Ontario-based digester is the largest food waste anaerobic digestion facility in Canada that produces renewable natural gas (RNG) from municipal source-separated organics and industrial, commercial and institutional food and beverage waste.
Generate says the NRCan loan supports a 4-year, $70 million expansion to add capacity to process waste and generate renewable energy.
“Canada is building the energy systems of the future, and the clean energy that will allow us to enjoy a prosperous, zero-emissions economy by 2050,” Hodgson says. “By supporting projects like Generate Upcycle’s RNG facility, we are leveraging homegrown innovation and existing resources into reliable, low-carbon energy while growing domestic clean fuel production and creating jobs—a win-win-win. This is about unlocking the full potential of London and all of Canada and building the country into an energy superpower that benefits every Canadian.”
Phase I, completed in spring 2024, expanded the biogas upgrading system and tripled the facility’s RNG production capacity.
Phase II, currently underway, includes the expansion of the feedstock receiving and anaerobic digestion infrastructure and is expected to be completed in early 2027.
Once construction is complete, the facility will have the capacity to produce up to 832,000 Gigajoules of RNG, the annual equivalent of heating over 9,400 Canadian homes.
“NRCan’s investment demonstrates confidence in the role renewable natural gas can play in strengthening Canada’s clean energy future,” said Generate Upcycle President Bill Caesar. “Public-private partnerships are essential to scaling the future of this type of clean energy infrastructure which require significant upfront investment. The CFF is helping us demonstrate to investors that these solutions are ready to scale across Canada.”
PHOTO: Sklyar Franke, Councilor, Elizabeth Peloza, Councilor, Peter Fragiskatos, Parliamentary Secretary, Arielle Kayabaga, Member of Parliament for London West, Tim Hodgson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Bill Caesar, President Generate Upcycle
