Dive Brief:
- Covanta and Veolia are working together on a new, jointly-owned waste-to-energy (WTE) facility in the U.K. village of Stewartby. Veolia will provide the waste and Covanta will operate the facility.
- The Rookery South Energy Recovery Facility will have annual capacity for 480,000 metric tons of municipal, commercial, and industrial waste. It is expected to generate more than 50 MW of energy per year.
- If construction begins next year as planned, the facility will be operational by 2020.
Dive Insight:
Though WTE facilities have yet to gain widespread acceptance in the U.S., they've long been popular in Europe. Inspired by strict landfill directives, the E.U. now has more than 400 active WTE facilities. Major cities such as Paris and Vienna receive portions of their district heating from local plants. Copenhagen's famous new "Copenhill" facility will be centrally located within the city and even have a ski slope on top.
The technology is seeing a big boom in Asia as well. China recently announced a new WTE facility in Shenzhen that will process 5,000 tons of waste per day—making it the world's largest—and be open by 2020. This is just one of 300 WTE facilities the country plans to build in the next three years.
A new report from leaders in the U.K. waste industry highlighted renewable energy as a promising area for investment and the profits continue to grow. As reported by the Environmental Leader, the global WTE market is expected to reach $37.64 billion by 2020.
