EasyPower gets a racing start

THE founder of Chelmsford City Racecourse has bought a significant stake in a green energy firm backed by Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou.

City sources said John Holmes, an Essex businessman and horse racing enthusiast, recently agreed to a deal to invest £7million for a 15 per cent shareholding in easyPower. The deal values easyPower at about £50million.

Holmes’s interests include developing land for builders and selling luxury furniture. He also owns Chelmsford City Football Club. His investment in easyPower, which licenses the ‘easy’ brand from the easyJet founder, comes after it got approval for its first clean energy plant. In September, local authorities gave easyPower permission to build the plant next to Chelmsford City Racecourse.

EasyPower claims to have developed a unique technology to convert waste – such as household rubbish, old tyres and medical equipment – into clean energy without toxic emissions.

It plans to use a technique called pyrolysis to convert rubbish at high temperatures into fossil fuel-style gas, which can then be converted into electricity and liquid fuels. Some solid black carbon residue remains, which can be removed and sold separately.

The gas is ‘cleaned’ ready for use in engines or for generating electricity sold to the National Grid.

EasyPower and Sir Stelios declined to comment.