Masdar and Bee’ah form waste-to-energy joint venture

31 May 2017

First project will have power capacity of 30MW 

This article has been unlocked to allow non-subscribers to sample MEED’s content for FREE. MEED provides exclusive news, data and analysis about the Middle East every day. Subscribe to MEED to have full access to Middle East business intelligence. Click here

The UAE’s Masdar and Bee’ah have formed a joint venture to develop waste-to-energy (WTE) plants across the Middle East.

The first project for the joint venture will be in the UAE emirate of Sharjah, where the new entity will develop a facility with the capacity to treat more than 300,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste a year and with a power generation capacity of 30MW.

The joint venture developer power purchase agreement (PPA) with state utility Sharjah Electricity & Water Authority (Sewa) was signed on 25 May.

The developer has awarded a contract to France’s CNIM to design, build and operate the new plant, which will be located within Bee’ah’s existing waste management centre in Sharjah.

The facility will be the first utility-scale solid WTE plant in the UAE. Dubai is also planning to develop a WTE plant. MEED reported in April that China’s Sepco 3 had submitted the lowest bid of AED1.18bn ($322m) for the contract to build the facility at Warsan.

Sepco’s 3 bid was 8 per cent lower than the $350m bid submitted by Spain’s Abengoa, the second-lowest bidder. Japan’s Hitachi Zosen submitted the third-lowest price of $363m.

The full list of bidders and offers is:

  • Sepco 3 (China), $322m
  • Abengoa (Spain), $350m
  • Hitachi Zosen (Japan), $363m
  • Hyflux (Singapore), $399m
  • Salini Impregilo (Italy), $401m
  • CNIM (France), $430m
  • Vinci (Franc3e), $511m

According to sources close to the scheme, the technical offers are currently under evaluation, which may modify the final ranking.

The WTE project is planned to have a minimum capacity of 2,000 tonnes a-day (t/d) and produce 60MW. The plant will be located at the waste landfill site in Warsan.

According to sources close to the scheme, the client had considered using a build-own-transfer (BOT) public-private partnership (PPP) model to develop the plant, but has decided to tender the scheme using an EPC model with an additional five years of operation and maintenance (O&M).

Germany’s Fichtner is the technical adviser for the WTE project.

The project is in line with Dubai’s Strategic Plan 2021 and the Dubai Integrated Energy Strategy 2030, both of which include a commitment to protect the environment and improve sustainability in the energy sectors. Dubai Municipality estimates the quantity of municipal solid wastes generated in the emirate in 2014 was 7,000 t/d.

This article has been unlocked to allow non-subscribers to sample MEED’s content for FREE. MEED provides exclusive news, data and analysis about the Middle East every day. Subscribe to MEED to have full access to Middle East business intelligence. Click here

A MEED Subscription...

Subscribe or upgrade your current MEED.com package to support your strategic planning with the MENA region’s best source of business information. Proceed to our online shop below to find out more about the features in each package.