Masdar launched a new company yesterday to tackle landfill waste by turning it into energy, stepping into a market worth billions.
The Emirates Waste to Energy Company (Ewec), a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi clean energy company and Sharjah’s waste management firm Bee’ah, is aiming to take on projects throughout the region, starting with a plant in Sharjah.
The facility, announced in January, will process up to 300,000 tonnes of solid waste per year, and have the capacity to produce 30 megawatts (MW) of energy.
The companies signed the power purchase agreement and are currently working to reach a financial close before starting construction.
The Masdar chief executive, Mohamed Al Ramahi, said that the region had one of the highest rates per capita of waste worldwide with the Sharjah plant being the first of many. Typically, landfill waste is burnt which is a major pollutant to the environment. The UAE has addressed this by aiming to divert 75 per cent of its solid waste from landfill sites by 2021.
“Our first project together is set to make a vital contribution toward the UAE’s ambitious targets to significantly reduce the amount of waste which goes to the landfill, as well as delivering clean energy to households across Sharjah,” Mr Al Ramahi said. The waste-to-energy plant will be able to burn up to 37.5 tonnes of rubbish an hour which will make steam to be used to power generators, which will provide electricity to the Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority.
Sharjah attempted to meet its “zero waste to landfill” goal by 2015, but that timeline was readjusted to 2020. Bee’ah picks up about 2.3 million tonnes of waste annually from about 1 million homes. The majority of this rubbish, around 70 per cent, avoids landfills and is instead sent to recycling facilities.
Bee’ah’s chief executive, Khaled Al Huraimel, said that the launch of this project strengthened the “collective vision for the future” while also helping Bee’ah to explore “opportunities beyond the field of waste management”.
Sharjah is just the first start for the new company as Ewec looks to take advantage of all economic opportunities in the clean energy sector. “We will play a major and leading role to ensure the commercial benefits, and we look forward to further participation with our partners towards commercially viable projects,” Mr Al Ramahi said.
While the companies plan to spearhead the country’s waste-to-energy sector, eyes are also on regional activity. The global waste-to-energy market is forecast to grow by 65 per cent to more than US$33 billion by 2023, while new investments in the sector totalled nearly $7bn, according to a report from the United Nations and Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
“We have the ambition and this sets the platform for more projects in the region,” said Badr Al Lamki, executive director of clean energy at Masdar. “This will stand out as the first of many to come.”
lgraves@thenational.ae
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