The NEXT Infrastructure Fund, a fund of the real asset investment manager NEXT Generation Invest (NEXT), which specialises in impact investing, is investing EUR 11 million in a wind energy project in the western Münsterland region. The project, which is being built in Rhede near the Dutch border, underlines the establishment of a lighthouse site for the production of liquid biogas with integrated CO2 capture. The start of construction has taken place in This quarter, with commissioning scheduled for October 2026. The project will be integrated into the operation of the already existing regional energy production.
Florian Philippi, Investment Manager Infrastructure at NEXT, says: "With the investment in the wind energy project in Rhede, we are making a concrete contribution to the regional energy transition as well as strengthening the circular economy, regional integrated value chains and German SMEs. At the same time, as a private investor, we are setting an example with our fund of how market-oriented carbon capture and storage projects, also known as CCS, can work in combination with renewable energy products as an effective and profitable capital investment."
Wind energy contributes to decarbonisation
The wind energy project will be implemented with Enercon as the technology supplier and will supply around 13.5 million additional kilowatt hours of electrical energy per year, the surplus portion of which will be fed into the regional grid. However, their main purpose will be the CO2-neutral supply of electricity to the bio natural gas production and liquefaction plant as well as the CO2 capture and liquefaction plant. The entire investment was largely co-financed by NEXT in the same fund. The gradual expansion of the company's own green energy supply will generate the highest greenhouse gas reduction rates for the end product.
Existing photovoltaic and combined heat and power plant systems in Rhede complement the supply. Furthermore, energy storage systems are planned to achieve an even better energy yield from wind and solar and to reduce the surplus feed-in as much as possible. The result is a lighthouse project of decentralized, regional energy supply in the context of the circular economy.
"We consider it crucial to focus not only on CO2 avoidance, but also on active CO2 removal from the atmosphere in order to be able to have a real climatic effect. The fund is therefore pursuing similar concepts in the area of biochar carbon removal projects, i.e. decarbonisation through biochar. We are very proud that we can combine ecological impact and regional benefits with this flagship project and hope that more private investors will look into investment opportunities like these in the future," adds Philippi.
