10 July 2023

JLEN Environmental Assets Group Limited

Second green hydrogen investment 

JLEN Environmental Assets Group Limited ("JLEN" or the "Company"), the listed environmental infrastructure fund, is pleased to announce its investment up to the value of €9.2m into the Company's second green hydrogen development opportunity, also in Germany, alongside a consortium including other Foresight managed funds and its development partner HH2E, a specialist in developing green hydrogen projects to decarbonise industry.

The green hydrogen production site is located in Lubmin, Germany and is capable of producing over 6,000 tonnes (200,000 MWh) of green hydrogen per annum during the first 100 MW phase, which will encompass electrolysis and integrated high-capacity battery storage. Subsequent expansion phases are expected to increase capacity to over 1 GW, with annual production exceeding 60,000 tonnes of green hydrogen.

The Lubmin plant will be built and operated by HH2E and will serve green hydrogen customers and offtakers, including the mobility sector and large-scale energy and industrial consumers. Lubmin benefits from excellent pre-existing grid infrastructure, including two LNG terminals, built in 2022, which connect the town with the country's pipeline network.

The consortium of investors has approved the Preliminary Investment Decision and the initial investment is being utilised for detailed engineering designs and the procurement of long lead items. The Final Investment Decision is expected in the coming months, with construction of the plant commencing immediately thereafter.

This follows an announcement made in January to invest in the Thierbach green hydrogen project near Borna in Germany in partnership with HH2E. Both opportunities are expected to provide attractive returns compared to the portfolio average.

Ed Warner, Chair of JLEN, said:

"We are pleased to be making good progress with our partnership with HH2E, which is poised to become one of the largest producers of green hydrogen in Europe. They have a deep understanding of the sector and they are highly capable of developing attractive opportunities to unlock value for investors. Hydrogen has an important role to play in decarbonising heavy transport, industry, and other hard-to-abate sectors of the economy. Investing in this sector will remain an important near-term focus for the Company as we continue to assess opportunities to recycle capital within the portfolio."

For further information please contact:

About JLEN

JLEN's investment policy is to invest in a diversified portfolio of Environmental Infrastructure. Environmental Infrastructure is defined by the Company as infrastructure assets, projects and asset-backed businesses that utilise natural or waste resources or support more environmentally friendly approaches to economic activity, support the transition to a low carbon economy or which mitigate the effects of climate change. Such investments will typically feature one or more of the following characteristics:

· long-term, predictable cash flows, which may be wholly or partially inflation-linked cash flows;

· long-term contracts or stable and well-proven regulatory and legal frameworks; or

· well-established technologies, and demonstrable operational performance.

JLEN's aim is to provide investors with a sustainable, progressive dividend per share, paid quarterly and to preserve the capital value of the portfolio over the long term on a real basis. The target dividend for the year to 31 March 2024 is 7.57 pence per share¹. 

JLEN is an Article 9 fund under the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation and has a transparent and award winning approach to ESG.

Further details of the Company can be found on its website www.jlen.com

LEI: 213800JWJN54TFBMBI68

⁽¹⁾ These are targets only and not profit forecasts.  There can be no assurance that these targets will be met or that the Company will make any distributions at all.

About HH2E

HH2E is a new green energy company in Germany founded to bring about immediate change. Its technology mix can convert a variable input of solar or wind energy into a constant flow of competitively priced green hydrogen, heat and carbon-free electricity to power local industries and communities. In 2022 it agreed a financing deal with institutional investors to develop 5 sites in Germany. Learn more about the company, technology, projects and career opportunities at www.hh2e.com