Divert Inc, a U.S. company that converts rotting food into energy, said it has received a $1 billion commitment from Canadian pipeline operator Enbridge Inc. to expand its facilities across North America. It is the latest in a string of investments by major energy companies in biogas, which can replace traditional natural gas but is more costly to produce. President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), signed into law in August, includes subsidies for equipment to capture climate-warming emissions at places like landfills and dairy farms and convert them into gas used to heat homes or fuel vehicles.
“This is historic for Enbridge because we see a huge opportunity for RNG from wasted food to be a key solution to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions,” Caitlin Tessin, Enbridge vice president of strategy and market innovation said in a statement. Divert, a 16-year-old company based in West Concord Massachusetts, uses technology to help grocers minimize food waste and also operates digesters that process that waste into what is known as renewable natural gas (RNG).
Decomposing food produces around a tenth of the world’s climate-warming gases, according to the United Nations. In addition to the $1 billion commitment from Enbridge to finance 30 sites it has selected for the digesters, Divert received an $80 million equity investment from the Calgary-based company and $20 million from investors led by Ara Partners.