Centrica plc, through its British Gas New Energy division, today announced that it has acquired a 19 per cent share of Econergy Ltd (‘Econergy'), for a cash consideration of £1 million. The deal includes the right to acquire the remaining share capital of the business over the next four years.

Econergy is a leader in biomass heating, which replaces fossil fuels with renewable energy sources for combustion to produce heat. Econergy sells, designs, installs and maintains these systems for individual domestic properties, business and public sector customers. It also provides community solutions in the form of district heating schemes. The company's turnover for the year ended June 2008 was £5 million.

The deal complements British Gas' acquisitions in 2008 of Solar Technologies Group Ltd and Semplice Energy Ltd, the equity investment in, and development and distribution agreement with, Ceres Power Holdings plc and technology partnerships with Baxi, Disenco and vPhase.

Gearóid Lane, Managing Director of British Gas New Energy, said:

"This investment is another step forward in our development of a broad range of renewable, energy efficient and low carbon technologies that we can offer our customers, helping them to use less and use cleaner energy".