Dublin city council has signed a contract with Dublin Waste to Energy Ltd – a partnership between US-owned energy from waste specialist Covanta Energy and Danish energy firm DONG Energy Generation – to build a £200 million plant capable of burning 600,000 tonnes of waste a year.
At present, Dublin city council sends 70% of its waste to landfill like many other cities in Ireland. But the council is hoping to cut this to 16% under its “ambitious” Dublin Waste Plan.
Matt Twomey, assistant city manager at the council, said: “When the Dublin Waste Plan achieves its ambitious targets of 59% recycling and the amount of waste going to landfill is reduced from the current 70% to just 16%, there will still be 25% of Dublin's waste remaining which will have to be managed.”
Mr Twomey explained that generating energy from the estimated 600,000 tonnes of residual waste produced each year by Dublin would provide electricity for 50,000 homes and district heating for a further 60,000 homes.
He said: “Waste to energy has a role to play in a plan that emphasises maximum recycling and minimum use of landfill.”
Construction
Covanta, which is a subsidiary of Covanta Holding Corporation, already operates 32 energy from waste facilities, mainly located in the US.
In Dublin, it will be responsible for the design and construction of the energy from waste plant, for which it has already submitted a planning application and applied for a waste licence from the Irish Environmental Protection Agency.
The company claims that “decisions from both these independent bodies are expected shortly” and hopes to start a three year construction programme in 2008.
Anthony Orlando, Covanta's president and chief executive, said: “We are delighted with this opportunity to provide world-class service to the city of Dublin. This project is exactly the type of public-private partnership that we look for as we seek to grow our business in Europe.”
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