China and Romania have both had very good years in terms of GDP growth in 2017. China has grown its GDP by 6.9% in 2017, while Romania managed to outpace even that with a 7% growth in the same year. Future outlooks are similarly positive, as China’s economy is booming and Romania enjoys what has been coined a ‘Goldilocks moment’ for several years now.

In our “Deregulating the Dragon” article, we’ve analyzed various aspects of the Chinese energy market, how its deregulation process was coming along and what difficulties it was facing. Importantly, China is committed to resolving the issues presented by 2020 and thus our 2021 market penetration should encounter little friction as we move into a newly-deregulated energy market that also happens to be the largest one on the planet (China accounts for 25% of global energy demand). Of equal importance is the fact that China continues to ramp up its investments in the field of renewables, as green energy has become an ever-growing part of the Chinese energy landscape.

With this in mind, we’ve decided to expand our reach into the Chinese renewables energy market by searching for partnerships that have considerable assets there, ideally enjoying joint-venture partnerships with strong Chinese-based renewable companies.

Simultaneously, due to the strong pro-crypto sentiment and favorable regulation and support for blockchain businesses that has recently come about in Switzerland, we have also been looking into partnering with companies that are based near the Swiss ‘Crypto Valley’ — an ever-expanding hub for blockchain, fintech, crypto, tech, and renewables firms that has garnered much attention in recent years.

All of the above have led us to partner with First Biogas International AG — one of the world leaders in the field of renewable biogas energy. They are headquartered in Switzerland and benefit from Swiss and German engineering excellence, while enjoying a strong presence on the Chinese energy market due to a joint-venture strategy with Chinese green energy company Hebei Jing’an Biomass Energy Technology — a company also listed on China’s stock exchange.

Furthermore, due to our partnership with First Biogas International AG and the joint-venture strategy they have employed on the Chinese energy market, their JV company Hebei Jing’an Ruineng Environmental Technology will also become our partners, marking the first step of our 2021 Chinese energy market penetration strategy.

China’s relationship with biogas

Historically, China has been an early adopter of biogas ever since the 1970s, where Sichuan province successfully implemented early biogas digesters on-mass in rural areas, especially around Mianyang, during China’s “constructing the new countryside” program.

In 1972, the Sichuan province held the first biogas conference, attended by representatives from all over China.

In 2010 there were roughly 30 million households in China with biogas digesters that convert biological waste products into clean fuel, especially in rural areas, where biogas has widely replaced more traditional fuel sources, such as wood, straw and especially coal. The same year’s figures also report that biogas accounted for roughly 1.2% of China’s total energy use.

Further growth of the sector was achieved primarily due to unprecedented policy support for the development and utilization of biogas systems by the landmark 2005 Renewable Energy Law (amended in 2009), that established key energy policies throughout China and has favored the biogas industry in areas that are appropriate for large-scale farming, especially pig-farming.

Introducing our new partners

First Biogas International AG (FBI AG) is a Swiss-based company, headquartered in Neuwiesenstrasse 958400, Winterthur, which is run in a joint-venture system — it is made up of several companies which complement each other’s expertise. Thus, it has several overseas holdings in Germany (Biolyse Biogas International GmbH), Hungary (First Biogas Eastern Europe Kft.) and importantly for our interests — China (Hebei Jing’an Ruineng Environmental Technology, jointly owned with Hebei Jing’an Biomass Energy Technology Co. Ltd).

FBI AG is a well-known company that has operated in the biogas power generation sector since 2010, with some of the constituent partners being active in this field as early as the late 1970s. This veteran knowledge has served the company well and its assets have grown steadily since that time.

Special hydrolysis pretreatment technology for straw digestion is used in its Hungary and Serbia branches to process the majority of straw available in the Carpathian basin (Eastern Europe).

Its German branch, Biolyse Biogas International GmbH focuses on biotechnology, specifically on further developing high-yield gas production efficiency, while also managing and coordinating the company’s Research & Development assets — 3 laboratories in Germany, Switzerland, and China.

First Biogas International AG’s subsidiary has rapidly expanded during the last years in the blooming Chinese economic climate and erected and/or owns and operates 10 active biogas plants, with 4 more being under construction. The Chinese subsidiary is also among the local technology leaders in the field of biogas, due to FBI AG’s special hydrolysis pretreatment technology for straw digestion.

FBI AG has expertise in and provides all the services related to the biogas business — this is important due to biogas being a technologically-complex field. The constituent partners are engaged in the four parts of biogas production technology and cover all know-how, including: plant design, consultancy, project development and key components.

FBI AG Leadership

With decades of expertise in the field, the leadership of First Biogas International AG easily distinguishes itself from competitors and provides professional and time-tested leadership — a valuable asset in any joint venture:

Daniel Ruch — CEO — MSc in Mechanical Engineering, MBA education. Over 20 years of professional engineering experience as Project Designer of biogas plants, Manager and Research Assistant.

Ralf Block — COO — BBA, Dipl.-Ing. Electrical Engineering, Quality Manager (TÜV). Over 15 years of professional engineering experience as Project Designer of biogas and bioenergy plants, and over 17 years of experience as Executive Manager for different companies in the area of industrial development and production.

Dr. Herbert Markert — CTO — Dr. oec, Dipl.-Ing. oec. Over 18 years of professional engineering experience as Project Designer of biogas plants and energy systems and Manager.

Anselm Gleixner — Mechanical Engineer. Profound knowledge in the field of biogas technology for more than 20 years, particularly in applications for the food industry and other organic waste.

First Chinese Partner

Due to the nature of joint-venture companies and our interest in the Chinese energy market, our partnership with First Biogas International has also lead to our first Chinese partnership: Hebei Jing’an Ruineng Environmental Technology Co. Ltd (Jing’An Ruineng).

Partnerships with energy producers are a crucial part of any market penetration and Jing’An Ruineng is already a technology leader in the field of renewable biogas energy production in China, thanks in part to FBI-pioneered hydrolysis pretreatment technology for straw digestion and its experienced R&D team.

The Chinese partner’s parent company Jing’An Bioenergy was established in May 2013, with a 96.33 million Yuan investment from its holding company — the Jingan Group — and is located in the modern Jingan Agricultural Demonstration Zone, in Hengshui, China. Its appointed president, Wei Yonghe, has patented a low-concentration organic waste anaerobic fermentation-efficient gas production system and led his research team to win the first prize in the 2015 ‘Outstanding Engineering Consulting Achievements in Hebei Province’; he is also said to hail from the same village as China’s acting president.

Jing’An Bioenergy owns four sets of mesophilic continuous stirred tank reactors of 5,000 cubic meters and two imported Germany Mannheim 1MW marsh gas generating sets. The annual output of biogas is 6.57 million cubic meters and the annual energy output is 15,120,000 kWh. At the same time, the annual output of biological organic fertilizers, micro complex fertilizers, organic-inorganic mixed fertilizers, and bio-organic watering manure is 250,000 tons.

It runs the first grid-connected biogas power plant in Hebei, and formed its R&D team with Swiss and German experts — doctors of science and holders of multiple patents — at its core. Having biomass energy exploitation, production of organic fertilizers and biogas equipment manufacturing as new industrial supports, it successively introduced advanced European technology such as hydrolytic acidification, equipment manufacturing and many others to the Chinese biomass market.

Jing’An Bioenergy has also achieved a strategic partnership with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing University of Chemical Technology and established the complete technical system of cogeneration — with fertilizers forming a new industrial pattern of “new energy, new environmental protection, new agriculture and new technology”.

In 2015 the company invested an additional 189 million Yuan in the development and construction of the “Anping Development and Utilization Project of Rural Biogas Resources”, a massive expansion of its main site.

At present, gas supply lines meeting the needs of 20,000 households around the region have started to be paved and a CNG filling station has been included in the development plans.

Jing’An Bioenergy is also listed on the Chinese Stock Exchange and is partnered with several other interconnected companies in the field of renewable power generation, thus making it an important and valuable partner for the future growth and expansion of Restart Energy, once the Chinese energy market reaches its deregulation targets.

About First Biogas International

First Biogas International AG started in 2010 as a joint venture of excellent Swiss and German biogas companies and has expanded rapidly ever since. The biogas experience of most of these companies goes back to the mid-90’s, when the first modern biogas plants were erected. Some of the companies were already active in the late 70’s with small farm-scale plants after the oil crisis.

After 20 years of national and 14 years of international biogas business experience, First Biogas International has developed a new business model to design and erect biogas plants worldwide and is branching out at a rapid pace. Thanks to this successful model, the company can design and adapt biogas plants to specific local needs, while training staff and transferring essential know-how to ensure sustainable business development.

For more information about First Biogas International, please visit their website: www.fbi-biogas.com

About Hebei Jing’an Ruineng Environmental Technology Co. Ltd

Jing’an Ruineng is a joint-venture Sino-Swiss high-tech renewable energy engineering company that can provide customers with integrated services such as general contracting of biogas projects, design, construction, commissioning and operation.

It also offers added-value services such as power generation and grid consultation, biological natural gas purification technical consultation, organic fertilizer production and processing, and effective treatment of farm sewage and standards discharge.

The development goals of the company are to provide customers with a package of solid waste solutions based on the most advanced Swiss & German biogas technology and it is committed to the development of various raw material biogas processes suitable for China’s national conditions, the localization and integration of European production and processing equipment, the localization of Swiss & German biogas engineering knowhow through the establishment of a R&D laboratory dealing with biogas as well as bio-organic fertilizer, microbial compound fertilizer, organic-inorganic compound fertilizer, and organic fertilizer application technology.

The company’s long-term goal is to realize the utilization of agricultural waste resources, vigorously develop biogas, and protect the blue skies and clear waters of China.

For more information about Hebei Jing’an Ruineng Environmental Technology Co. Ltd, please visit their website: www.jarnhj.com

About Restart Energy

Restart Energy Democracy (RED) is a blockchain-powered platform, backed by Restart Energy — a European energy provider with 20 million USD in revenues. The company was built with a vision to democratize the energy sector and quash the dominance of legacy monopolies in the energy world. The company’s credentials include a customer base of 27,000 household and 3,000 corporate clients, expanding at more than 2,000 clients per month (5,000 new customers in the first two months of 2018), and its impressive growth: 1700% from 2015 until today.

Restart Energy is developing the world’s first peer-to-peer, fully decentralized energy transfer platform allowing users to send and receive energy worldwide, based on its proprietary virtual balancing system, that uses A.I, Big Data, and IoT technologies. The RED ecosystem is comprised of the RED-Platform, RED-Franchise and RED-MWAT Tokens.

The RED-Franchise is the first power retail franchise to simplify and allow any company or entrepreneur to operate their own power utility enterprise, enabling them to start selling energy in more than 35 deregulated energy markets globally.

MWAT tokens are crypto-tokens that enable the buying and selling of up to 1 MWh of electricity per month on the RED-Platform Software and will facilitate the development of affordable clean energy, through free-market practices. Upon completion of registration on the platform, an initial loyalty bonus of 0.11 kWh is applied. Producers send out monthly loyalty bonuses through the RED Loyalty System, totaling 1–5% of traded on-grid energy in exchange for access to the RED Platform.

Importantly, it should be noted that potential franchise partners will need to own (this is not a form of payment to us) a certain number of MWAT tokens, in order to qualify for our various franchise tiers — the secret to our award-winning growth as a business!

For more information, please visit our website, our Telegram, and read the Restart Energy whitepaper. Join our announcement channel for updates regarding Restart Energy Democracy.