Macquarie Asset Management and Dutch pension fund manager APG, together invested €300 million ($341 million) to help SkyNRG set up production facilities across the Netherlands, Sweden and the US by 2030.
ABP, a Dutch pension fund for government employees that is managed by APG, provided €250 million. Macquarie, which had invested €175 million ($199.5 million) in SkyNRG via its Macquarie GIG Energy Transition Solutions Fund in late 2023, added €50 million.
Sustainable fuel
SkyNRG was co-founded 15 years ago by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Spring Associates and circular solutions company EME, to make sustainable aviation fuel from vegetable and waste oils.
The company and Swedish power company Skellefteå Kraft entered a partnership last year to develop eSAF, synthetic aviation fuel made from renewable electricity and carbon dioxide from decomposing biomass.
SkyNRG’s Maarten van Dijk said the new capital “demonstrates that the SAF market is ready for facilities dedicated solely to the production of SAF.” Such fuels can cut aviation emissions, which account for just over 2% of carbon emissions globally, by up to 80%.
SAF finance
SAF supply has lagged demand (for background see, “Cloudy Skies: DOE backs sustainable aviation fuel, but airline demand is slow”). The EU and China mandate that jet fuel blends must contain at least 2% SAF by the end of this year. In the US, a key tax break has helped projects pencil out.
Earlier this year, alternative fuel producer Montana Renewables secured the first tranche of a $1.44 billion loan guarantee in a rare disbursement from the US Department of Energy, to expand SAF production capacity to 300 million gallons annually.
