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Abu Dhabi Power Corporation, ADPower, announced – alongside its subsidiary, Emirates Water and Electricity Company, EWEC – the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with the Abu Dhabi Waste Management Centre, Tadweer, to facilitate the development of two waste-to-energy, WtE, plants in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain.
Upon completion, the plants would have the potential to transform up to 1.5 million tonnes of municipal waste into energy every year and collectively reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 2.5 million tonnes annually – equivalent to the removal of more than 500,000 cars from the road. The Abu Dhabi plant is also expected to be among the largest WtE facilities in the Middle East.
The MoU was signed during a virtual ceremony by Jasim Husain Thabet, CEO and Managing Director of ADPower; Othman Al Ali, CEO of EWEC, and Dr. Salem Al Kaabi, General Manager of Tadweer.
The first plant – to be located in the Industrial City of Abu Dhabi in the Mussafah region – would have an expected processing capacity of up to 900,000 tonnes of waste per year and generate up to 90MW of electricity (equivalent to powering an average of 22,500 UAE households), making it one of the largest WtE facilities in the region.
The second plant – to be located in Al Ain – would have an expected processing capacity of up to 600,000 tonnes of waste per year and generate up to 60MW of electricity (equivalent to powering an average of 15,000 UAE households).
Thabet said, "This MoU represents a significant milestone for Abu Dhabi, as we deliver on the objectives, set out in the UAE Vision 2021, which aims to divert 75 percent of waste away from landfills. The proposed WtE plants will reduce the impact of waste on the environment and human health, helping to deliver on the water and electricity sector’s sustainability agenda."
Ali said, "We are delighted to partner with Tadweer to significantly enhance Abu Dhabi’s waste-to-energy infrastructure, in line with both our sustainability-focused mission at EWEC, as well as the nation’s wider commitments. The project will also serve as a benchmark throughout the region for the development of sustainable WtE facilities and waste management systems."
Dr. Al Kaabi said, "This agreement is aligned with Tadweer’s continued efforts to divert waste from landfills and encourage environmentally friendly and commercially viable solutions to address the challenges posed by the treatment of large volumes of waste."
The proposed WtE plants would be developed through the Independent Power Producers model applied in respect of Abu Dhabi power projects since 1998. In line with such a model, a long-term Power Purchase Agreement would be entered into, with EWEC as the off-taker of the electricity and Tadweer as the provider of feedstock waste under a long-term waste supply agreement. Private sector participants would be invited to submit proposals to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the facilities, which will use advanced moving grate technology to convert municipal solid waste into electricity via a high-efficiency steam turbine generator set. Ash from the process will be processed and recycled into reusable material.
The two new WtE projects will grow ADPower’s portfolio of investments in power generation assets, which form part of the assets subject to the recently announced offer to Abu Dhabi National Energy Company, whereby ADPower would transfer the majority of its water and electricity generation, transmission and distribution assets to TAQA. If accepted and approved by TAQA and regulatory authorities, the proposed transaction would create a combined entity that is expected to be one of the largest utilities companies in the GCC, a top-10 integrated utilities player in the EMEA region by regulated assets, and the third-largest company listed on the UAE stock markets by market capitalisation.
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