UK-based Kedco (LON: KED) informed the Cleantech Group it has raised €3.2 million ($4 million) from London independent investment company Cornhill Capital and a private client network along with two directors.

Kedco CEO Donal Buckley said the funding comes in the form of a Private Investment in Public Equity or PIPE structure to enable the company to develop an efficient 4 megawatt gasification project in Northern Ireland being commissioned in 2Q 2010.

“It turns on our first major electrical generation plant, which will have the effect of re-evaluating the pipelines,” he said. The company has 29 projects in various stages of development totaling more than 100 MW and a 100 kilowatt plant already in operation.

“It will be the biggest in the UK and Ireland for its type,” Buckley said of the Northern Ireland project. “It takes wood and converts it to electricity using gasification.”

The company specializes in designing, building and operating localized renewable power generation plants, with power generation coming from sustainable waste and biomass fuel sources, including wood, agricultural or food waste as fuel.

Buckley said as a developer, Kedco obtains feedstock contracts, power purchase agreements and permitting rights, and uses third party technology for the development of either anaerobic digestion plants (which convert food waste to electricity) or gasification plants (which convert wood and wood waste). Much of the technology comes from a subsidiary of General Electric.

The management team has backed Kedco with €3.5 million of their own funds so far, said Christopher Maule of Cornhill Capital.

Buckley said Kedco is focused in the near-term on getting the Northern Ireland plant up and running, and creating a business with a large reoccurring revenue stream. The 5-year-old company plans to build a 250 MW pipeline in the next 4.5 years and is on the lookout for additional feedstock suppliers and potential partners.

“You have to create a basket of those projects to create value for shareholders,” he said.

The company also generates revenue from selling domestic and industrial wood chips and wood pellets, and has a biomass feedstock business in Eastern Europe.

Kedco has two business segments: Kedco Power, which specializes in electrical power generation from biomass and waste, and Kedco Energy, which contains a number of ancillary businesses serving industrial and residential customers – all with a renewable energy focus.