Towards Net Zero: Waste To Energy

WASTE TO ENERGY: TOWARDS NET ZERO FRIDAY, JULY 22, 2022

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UAE’s first waste-to-energy plant launches operations in Sharjah Facility to help divert 300,000 tonnes of unrecyclable waste away from landfills

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harjah has constantly set the bar on waste management in the UAE, thanks to the pioneering efforts by Bee’ah in the field of sustainability. The trend continued earlier this year in May, when the UAE’s first waste-toenergy plant launched operations in Sharjah. Inaugurated

by Dr Shaikh Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, the Sharjah Wasteto-Energy plant is the first under Emirates Waste-to-Energy, a joint venture between Bee’ah Energy and Masdar, Abu Dhabi.

1st zero-waste city in ME

The Sharjah Waste-to-Energy plant makes the Emirate the first zero-waste city in the Continued on page 2

ICIEC, the Green Economy Enabler

ICIEC’s Representative Office in UAE Office 201, Building 12, Bay Square Business Bay, 114462 Dubai, UAE Tel: (+971) 42776257 / 42776256

Friday, July 22, 2022 | Gulf News

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CLEAN P E E W S

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and right: Archive images of workers sorting waste at Bee’ah’s Saja’a landfill in Sharjah

s, s of initiative e ri e s a h g u Thro Sharjah set d e lp e h s a h Bee’ah ste stainable wa u s n o r a b e th he images are T . t n e m e g a man of some of n io t a t n e s a repre at undertaken s ie it iv t c a e th s ’a and acros ja a S in ll fi d its lan the emirate

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oversee operations to recycle cardboard bales at Bee’ah’s waste management site in Saja’a

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archive image of waste collection as part of the UAE’s residential recycling programme initiated by Bee’ah

Pictures: Gulf News Archives

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bottles get organised into recyclable portions at the Saja’a site

Continued from page 1

Middle East, helping turn unrecyclable waste into clean energy, while growing current landfill diversion rates from 76 per cent to 100 per cent. The move also helps reduce waste sent to landfills across the UAE, while contributing to the nation’s clean energy resources. In full operational capacity, the Sharjah Waste-to-Energy plant will help divert up to 300,000 tonnes of unrecyclable waste away from landfills each year while producing up to 30 MW of low-carbon electricity. This can help power up to 28,000 homes in Sharjah.

Following EU Best Available Techniques, the Sharjah Wasteto-Energy plant meets the most stringent global environment standards. Constructed

by French industrial contractor CNIM, the plant covers an 80,000 square metre area. Within, unrecyclable waste is fed into a boiler to produce highpressure steam, turning electric turbine generators. While the toxins and pollutants are filtered from the flue gas produced during the process, the bottom ash is collected to recover metals and ash material for use in construction and roadwork applications. The fly ash gets collected and treated separately.

Annually, the 30 MW plant will displace almost 450,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions, supporting the country's efforts to realise its strategic initiative to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. It will also preserve the

■■ Annually,

the 30 MW plant will displace close to 450,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions

equivalent of 45 million cubic metres of natural gas.

Sustainability drive

Adjacent to the plant is a waste-management complex operated by Bee’ah Recycling, Bee’ah Group’s recycling and material recovery business, and that has already helped achieve a 76 per cent landfill waste diversion rate for Sharjah. Unrecyclable waste from the complex will be transported to the waste-to-energy plant.

Speaking to the media before the launch, Khaled Al Huraimel, Group CEO, Bee'ah, said, “We are confident that with a successful testing and commissioning period, and once the plant is fully operational, we will also

waste being readied for recycling at Saja’a

demonstrate how waste-to-energy is an essential innovation to sustaining the circular economy, tackling the challenge of unrecyclable waste, and serving as a more affordable, low-carbon alternative to traditional fossil fuels.”

Big picture

The Sharjah Waste-to-Energy plant is also part of a larger initiative by the UAE to pioneer the drive for sustainable waste management across the country.

The project will be seen to support the UAE's efforts to turn waste into an economic resource through the development of several waste-to-energy facilities, in line with the circular economy approach.

One of these future plants includes the Dubai Waste Treatment Centre in Warsan. Costing approximately Dh4 billion, the Warsan centre will be completed in line with international environmental standards, with a capacity of some 1,000 loaded trucks per day, and helping to treat up to 5,666 tonnes of municipal solid waste produced daily in Dubai.

It will also convert some 1.9 million tonnes of waste annually into renewable energy, which will provide the local electricity network with close to 200 MW of clean energy.

The Abu Dhabi Department of Energy and the Abu Dhabi Waste Management Centre (Tadweer) also signed a MoU in 2020 to turn approximately five million tonnes of municipal waste into energy in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain by establishing two waste to energy projects. Following this, an application process was opened to bidders in January last year to establish the first plant, with an independent production system capable of handling waste weighing between 600,000 and 900,000 tonnes. The plant will help prevent nearly 1.5 million tonnes of carbon emissions.

Umm Al Quwain has also joined the sustainable waste management drive, initiating the construction of a solid waste treatment plant project and simultaneous production of alternative fuels. The project is expected to cost more than Dh130 million.

—­With input from agencies

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waste collection spaces with covered waste bins, part of the residential recycling programme by Bee’ah

DUBAI MUNICIPALITY INSTALLS GENERATOR AT WASTE MANAGEMENT CENTRE

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ubai Municipality announced the installation of a generator last month at the Dubai Waste Management Centre. Considered to be the world’s largest waste-to-energy project, the installation marks the beginning of preparations for the initial operational stage in 2023. The step is also a new milestone in the project’s development with the generator playing an important role in producing power.

Following the installation of the steam turbine, Dubai Municipality took the decision of installing this generator to promote power sustainability at the Dubai Waste Management Centre. This project reports a production capacity reaching 200 megawatt hours (MWh), which is reliant on the steam turbine. The turbine enables the generator’s operation, which is followed by conversion of rotational energy into electricity. The power output from this is transmitted to the feeding station by a 132-kilovolt cable network.

Dawoud Al Hajri, Director General, Dubai Municipality, said: “The step to install the generator was taken as a preparation process for the initial operational stage of 2023 at the Dubai Waste Management Centre.

“This is the largest waste-to-energy project in the world. It is projected to have a high capacity of clean energy generation by 2023. The site will be fully operational by 2024.”

— With input from agencies

Gulf News | Friday, July 22, 2022

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ICIEC:

HELPING POWER A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

The Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit has played a crucial role in financing the construction of the UAE’s first waste to energy plant

By Suneeti Ahuja-Kohli

Shutterstock

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he recent completion of the UAE’s first waste-toenergy plant in Sharjah is a seminal step in the country’s drive to achieve netzero carbon emissions by 2050.

It is also central to Sharjah’s vision of becoming the first zerowaste city in the Middle East, and setting the bar higher in the region that ranks high on per capita solid waste generation per year.

The Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC), the insurance arm of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group, has provided cover for the project’s construction financing of around $220 million.

“In the Sharjah WtE Project, ICIEC is supporting the UAE by providing cover to facilitate financing from an international bank for construction work to be executed by a foreign contractor related to the project in Sharjah.

In addition, we are contributing to the development agenda (in the UAE), contributing to mitigating climate change; engaging with local, regional, and international financial institutions, including Islamic financial institutions in facilitating green financing; and assisting entities in member states to access longterm project finance,” said Oussama Kaissi, CEO, ICIEC, in an interview with local media.

The project is promoted by Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) and Bee'ah, Sharjah’s environmental management company. Started in 2018, the construction of the first phase of the Sharjah WtE facility was completed in May this year. The project is now in the testing phase, and is managed

by Emirates Waste to Energy Company (EWEC), a 50:50 joint venture established by Bee’ah and Masdar in 2017.

The total cost of this turnkey project is Dh4 billion ($1.1 billion). “The Sharjah WtE Project construction structured financing, with a tenor of 20 years totals $220 million and is provided by a consortium of five banks, namely Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Europe (SMBCE) UK, Siemens Bank, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank,

Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, and Standard Chartered.

The deal was the first of its kind in the region, bringing together a consortium of five banks to finance the project on a nonrecourse basis,” added Kaissi.

ICIEC has provided a 17-year $32.5-million Non-Honouring of Sovereign Financial Obligations (NHFSO) cover for SMBCE UK’s participation in the loan syndication for this project, which on completion will result in an estimated net reduction of 460,000 carbon dioxide emissions per year and reduce waste disposed to landfills.

ICIEC’s role in the UAE projects

ICIEC has a growing relationship with Masdar and inked a wide-ranging pact, which could provide a major boost to the UAE’s efforts in moving towards renewable and clean energy.

This is important considering the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members are responsible for generating an estimated 150 million tonnes of urban waste annually. In the wider region, the Middle East and North Africa are expected to double waste generation in the next three decades.

For a start, the Sharjah WtE plant will divert around 300,000 tonnes of solid waste from landfills each year and contribute to the emirate’s efforts to reach its zero-waste-to-landfill targets.

Once operational, the plant turns unrecyclable waste into clean energy, and increases the current landfill diversion rate of the UAE from 76 per cent to

The UAE is a priority market for ICIEC. After all, the UAE’s net zero strategy involves a Dh600 billion investment in clean and renewable energy resources.”

- Oussama Kaissi, CEO, ICIEC

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100 per cent.

“The UAE is a priority market for ICIEC. After all, the UAE’s net-zero strategy involves a Dh600 billion ($163 billion) investment in clean and renewable energy sources in the next three decades across the country. In April, Abu Dhabi also announced its zero-waste proposal under which it aims to ensure that no waste is sent to landfill after 2071. Waste management is a major problem for many cities in the GCC, as it is elsewhere globally,” said Kaissi, adding, “Sharjah W2E Project will attract much attention at COP28, which coincidentally is hosted by the Government of the UAE in 2023.”

Insurers are enablers of the green economy

Insurers, including multilateral ones such as ICIEC, national ones such as the UAE’s Etihad Credit Insurance (ECI) and its Islamic entity, are green economy enablers. “They absorb the risks. As institutions with a

long-term investment focus, insurers are well placed to channel investment into infrastructure projects, notably in renewable energy. Insurance solutions can reduce risks inherent in infrastructure projects and increase their appeal to investors. The ability to help channel invest-

ment into sustainable projects is a sizeable growth opportunity for the sector, especially in the Mena region,” said Kaissi.

ICIEC is unique, for it is the only Shariah-compliant multilateral insurer in the world.

“The global Islamic finance industry, with its estimated $3.2

trillion of assets under management, has a wonderful opportunity in the green finance and Sukuk space, especially in sustainable development projects and infrastructure, given that there is much overlapping in the ethos between faith-based Islamic finance and the ethical finance movement, including green, SRI, sustainable and ESG finance,” said the CEO. For now, the market gap between conventional green finance and Islamic green finance is huge. Total green and sustainable Sukuk, for instance, according to Fitch Ratings, reached $15 billion in 2021, led by sovereign and corporate issuers in Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey and the GCC states.

“So the latent demand for green Sukuk is huge because the base is low. Green Sukuk is also the preferred format for ESG-linked debt in core Islamic finance markets, which includes the UAE, the home of the world’s first commercial Islamic bank, Dubai Islamic Bank,” said Kaissi.

ICIEC has also proposed the establishment of a Climate Action Finance Trust Fund, with institutional partners, peer multilaterals, and ECAs in the member states and beyond, which would offer a discount on the insurance premiums needed for the financing of climate action projects.

The success of initiatives such as this can bring change to the region and power a collective sustainable future.

B R E AT H E I N S E R E N I T Y, B R E AT H E O U T S T R E S S , YO U R L U X U R Y I S L A N D E S C A P E AWA I T S .

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