The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (Caisse) has committed C$161M (€100M) in corporate financing to Verdalia Bioenergy, a biomethane operating platform co-founded by Goldman Sachs Alternatives.
The transaction will support Verdalia’s investment plan to build and operate a portfolio of projects across Spain and Italy with a combined production capacity exceeding 3 terawatt-hours per year — equivalent to the annual consumption of nearly one million households, according to a news release.
The total capital to be deployed in the portfolio will exceed €1B. The Caisse’s investment, made through its infrastructure financing team, is structured to provide strategic flexibility, funding both construction and acquisitions to support Verdalia’s greenfield and brownfield growth over the next four years.
“The production of biomethane, as a renewable energy source, plays a key role in decarbonization,” said Jérôme Marquis, the pension fund’s managing director and head of private credit, in an email to Markets Group. He noted the transaction is in line with La Caisse’s climate strategy, which aims to accelerate the global energy transition.
“This financing enables La Caisse to support Verdalia Bioenergy, a rapidly growing, vertically integrated and diversified European platform co-founded by Goldman Sachs Alternatives, that meets an essential need in the agricultural value chain,” said Marquis.
Verdalia’s portfolio already includes seven plants in operation and six under construction in Italy, which are expected to start injecting biomethane into the grid in early 2026. In Spain, Verdalia is currently building its first plant and will commence construction of two additional facilities before the end of this year.
The organization recently closed its corporate financing period with a landmark €671M in backing from a group of lenders that, in addition to La Caisse, includes ING, Société Générale, UniCredit, BBVA, SMBC, Rivage, and Santander and Sabadell.
“This milestone constitutes a big leap forward for Verdalia and for the biomethane industry in Europe,” said Fernando Bergasa, the organization’s co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer, in the news release. “It demonstrates the trust of top-tier financial institutions in our strategy and underlines the role that renewable natural gas will play in achieving decarbonization targets and energy independence.”
