Dive Brief:

• A new WTE plant in Palm Beach, FL, is up and running. The Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach’s WTE plant at the Palm Beach Renewable Energy Park is fully operational and generating power for the electric power grid.
• The $600 million plant was designed and built by Babcock & Wilcox Co., based in Charlotte, NC. B&W’s subsidiary, the Palm Beach Resource Recovery Corp., operates the plant for the local authority. The new plant is working in conjunction with a 65-megawatt WTE plant at the site, which also was built by B&W.
• In Europe, B&W is building four WTE plants. The Florida site — built with the help of KBR Inc. — is the sole U.S. WTE plant B&W has been working on.

Dive Insight:

B&W officials said the new plant is on the cutting edge of waste-to-energy technology. Paul Scavuzzo, vice president of the B&W power group’s Global Power Division, said the project is the company's flagship effort in North America.

The new B&W plant is expected to handle more than 1 million tons of municipal solid waste each year, power 44,000 homes in the area, and diminish reliance on the local Palm Beach landfill by 90%.