Groundbreaking held for Ireland’s largest agri-based biomethane plant

In Ireland, construction has officially begun on Ireland’s largest agri-based biomethane plant, located near Ballinrobe in County Mayo. To mark this significant milestone, Minister of State at the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment, with responsibility for Circular Economy, Alan Dillon TD, joined senior leaders from Nephin, Flogas and DCC plc, at an official groundbreaking ceremony this morning.

Once operational, the Ballinrobe plant will process 90,000 metric tons of farm waste annually – including manures and slurries – to generate over 85 GWh of sustainable, Irish-produced biomethane. It will also create over a hundred direct and indirect jobs over its lifetime, while providing farmers with long-term, reliable income streams.

The ceremony also marked the signing of a landmark biomethane offtake agreement between Flogas and Nephin. Under this agreement, Flogas will be the offtake partner for the renewable gas produced by the three state-of-the-art anaerobic digestion plants being developed by Nephin across the country. These plants, once operational, will deliver over 250 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of sustainable, Irish-produced, biomethane annually – enough to heat over 33,000  homes. The Ballinrobe facility will be the first to come on stream in 2027, with details of the two further plants to be announced later this year. This partnership, a first of its kind in Ireland, marks a major step in Ireland’s green gas transition, directly supporting the Government’s target to produce 5.7 TWh of biomethane by 2030.