Egypt will spend USD 120 mn to bankroll a waste-to-energy project: Renergtary Prody Group Partners — a joint venture between Egypt’s National Organization of Miliuction and Green Tech Egypt — will invest some USD 120 mn to launch the planned waste-to-energy (WtE) project in the country’s Abu Rawash city, according to a cabinet statement. The plant — expected to convert some 1.2k tons of municipal solid waste per day to 30 MWh of electricity — will also be awarded the country’s golden license to expedite the plant’s establishment, the statement notes.

What exactly are these golden licenses? Egypt’s golden licenses — also known as single approval licenses — fast-track new industrial and infrastructure projects, allowing investors to obtain only one approval that covers everything from establishing the project including land allocation, building licensing, and the operation and management of the project.

WtE projects are gaining traction in Egypt: Egypt-based energy industry contractor Korra Energi inaugurated the country’s first trigeneration waste-to-energy facility late last month to repurpose waste generated by the company’s power plant and flare gas projects.

And the WtE train is picking up steam regionally: Bee’ah Recycling — a subsidiary of Emirati waste management company Bee’ah — added a new solid recovered fuel processing facility to its integrated waste management complex in Sharjah, producing some 85k tons of green fuel annually. Bee’ah also signed an MoU with US- and UK-based waste-to-energy focused tech company Chinook Sciences and Japanese gas conglomerate Air Water to form a consortium aimed at setting up a waste-to-hydrogen plant in Sharjah. Egypt’s Suez Cement is investing USD 25 mn in plans to generate some 20 MW of power from the waste heat recovery facility at its Helwan plant. Kuwait Municipality also approved a refuse-driven fuel project to power up its main cement production plant in October, and Saudi Electricity Company is reportedly planning waste energy-powered projects.