Sharjah: Bee’ah and Masdar have formally established the Emirates Waste to Energy Company (EWEC), a joint venture to develop waste-to-energy plants across the region, officials announced on Thursday.
Bee’ah is Sharjah’s environmental management company while Masdar is Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company.
EWEC’s first project will be a multi-fuel waste-to-energy facility in Sharjah. The plant will be the region’s first and will treat, in its first phase, more than 300,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) every year. It will have the capacity to generate around 30 megawatts (MW) of electricity.
When it was founded in 2007, Bee’ah set itself the ambitious target of achieving zero waste in Sharjah. The emirate currently keeps 70 per cent of its waste out of landfills. With the completion of the new facility, Sharjah will become the first city in the Middle East to achieve a target of 100 per cent diversion of waste from landfill, a press release said on Thursday.
Dr Thani Bin Ahmad Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, attended the launch of EWEC and witnessed the signing of the waste supply agreement and power purchasing agreement for the landmark waste-to-energy project. Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (Sewa) will buy electricity generated by the plant.
Dr Al Zeyoudi said: “This pioneering national project is particularly important in the realisation of two main objectives of our National Agenda: Raising the percentage of treated waste to 75 per cent and increasing the contribution of clean energy in the national energy mix to 27 per cent.”
Salim Al Owais, chairman of Bee’ah, said: “As we announce this state-of-the-art facility, it is no exaggeration to say that this is a historic day, not only for Bee’ah and Masdar, but for the whole of the UAE. Together with our strategic partner Masdar, we have set the ambitious goal of making the UAE a beacon for best environmental practices in the Middle East.”
Mohammad Jameel Al Ramahi, CEO of Masdar, said: “Masdar firmly believes in industry collaboration as the most effective way of advancing the deployment of commercially viable technologies, while supporting the UAE’s goals for sustainable economic development.”
Dr Engineer Rashid Al Leem, chairman of Sewa, said: “We are delighted to sign this Power Purchase Agreement with Bee’ah to receive electricity directly from what will be a state-of-the-art waste-to-energy plant.”
