Biogas Developer "Gree Energy" Obtains 50 Billion Rupiah Investment from Earthcare Group

Gree Energy, a biogas to energy development company from Indonesia, announced the acquisition of pre-series A funding of $3,2 million or 49,9 billion Rupiah led by Earthcare Group, catalytic investors based in Hong Kong.

This round is an additional investment to a pre-series A funding of $250K by Water Unite Impact in May 2022. In total, Gree Energy has pocketed funds of $3,45 million or around 53,8 billion Rupiah.

"Gree's vision is to reduce pollution in the agriculture and food sectors, and to replace energy produced from fossil fuels is the key to mitigating climate change, and is very much in line with Indonesia's goal of reducing carbon emissions by 43% by 2030," said Co-Head of Investment Earthcare Group Andre Barlian, as quoted from Green Energy's official website on Wednesday (21/12).

He continued, the company has a unique holistic approach that allows them to generate diversified revenue streams at little additional cost. "Gree's business model is also highly replicable in most agriculture-based economies with growing energy demand, which is the case in most of the Global South. The growth potential is tremendous," he added.

Green Energy Solutions

Founded in 2013, Gree Energy is a company that decarbonises food processors in developing countries by turning their wastewater into biogas. Meanwhile, this biogas is used to produce energy, heat, bio-CNG, clean water, organic fertilizer, and can be sold as carbon credits, making it financially feasible by opening access to carbon credit markets, green finance, and renewable energy markets.

One example of a successful Gree project is Hamparan in Lampung. It was stated that the project, which has been running since December 2022, has reduced more than 30.000 CO2eq emissions annually, produces nearly 10 GWh of clean and reliable energy per year for 19 villages there. This project provides evidence of the scale potential of the Gree impact model to contribute to the decarbonization of the food industry in developing countries.

The company estimates that more than 1.350 food processors in Indonesia generate more water pollution than the population of 185 million. These food processors emit 50 million tons of CO2eq emissions per year, the equivalent of putting ten million cars on the road each year.

In parallel, by 2030, Indonesia is targeting to increase the share of renewable electricity from 13,5% in 2021 to 34% and reduce carbon emissions by almost 32% on its own (43,2% with international assistance).

Biogas is one of the main foundations to overcome these twin challenges. To take advantage of Indonesia's biogas potential, it is estimated to require an investment of more than $2 billion for a biogas wastewater treatment facility. This will unlock investment of over $3 billion in the development of distributed biogas energy assets.

According to Gree Energy, biogas is a technology that has been proven to meet Indonesia's renewable energy mix, but the opportunity to unlock its full potential has not been fully exploited.

Gree's impact model is well positioned to capture this opportunity in Indonesia and replicate it in other emerging markets that need to meet growing energy demands while properly decarbonizing and treating industrial wastewater.

Gree Energy adopts independently measurable and verifiable environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics to transparently report activities, results and impacts. The company is a certified B-Corp committed to meeting the highest verified social and environmental performance standards.