Abu Dhabi is getting a mega WtE facility: Two international consortiums have submitted proposals to the Emirates Water and Electricity Company (Ewec) and the Abu Dhabi Waste Management Company (Tadweer) for the development of a 900k ton capacity greenfield Waste-to-Energy (WtE) IPP facility in Abu Dhabi, according to a statement released on Thursday.

Who is interested? A Japanese consortium comprising the trading and investment conglomerate Marubeni, the Swiss-based WtE cleantech company Hitachi Zosen Inova (HZI), and the infrastructure investment fund Japan Overseas Infrastructure Investment Corporation (JOIN), and a consortium made up of France’s water utility and waste recycling company Suez and UAE’s district cooling provider Pal Cooling are throwing their hats in the ring for the project.

What we know about the project so far: The facility will be located near the existing Al Dhafra landfill in Abu Dhabi, and will have the capacity to process 900k tons of waste, generating enough power for some 53k UAE households while cutting 1.1 mn tons of CO2 emissions. The facility will use advanced moving grate (AMG) incinerators to convert municipal solid waste into electricity. The developers of the facility will be announced in 3Q 2023 by Ewec and Tadweer with a target commercial operational launch in 4Q 2026.

Marubeni and Suez are diversifying renewable investments in the region: Marubeni signed an agreement in March with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to jointly conduct a feasibility study for a green hydrogen production facility in KSA. The company is also the largest developer in a consortium working on the USD 1 bn green ammonia SalalaH2 project in Oman. Suez is leading a consortium for the operation of public wastewater treatment services in four Tunisian governorates, under a 10-year EUR 200 mn contract financed by the World Bank.

WtE projects are gaining traction in the region: Oman completed the technical and economic feasibility studies to establish a WtE plant last month. Egypt signed a USD 120 mn agreement in April with a consortium led by Renergy Egypt to design, build, own, and operate its new WtE factory in Abu Rawash city. US-based carbon recycling company LanzaTech signed an MoU with Tadweer last February to explore the possibility of establishing a waste to sustainable aviation fuels conversion plant.