News:

CNIM to start building the first WtE plant in Estonia this summer

The CNIM – Estonian Eesti Energia plant of 220.000 t/a capacity will cost 96 million € and will be placed at Iru near Talinn. Furthermore, plans for the second waste plant at Tartu and of 100.000 t/a capacity are being prepared

The supervisory board of the Estonian Eesti Energia granted on January 28th approvals for an agreement to build a waste-to-energy incineration plant. The 96 million € worth investment will be built with the help of the French contractor Constructions Industrialles De La Mediterranee (CNIM). It will be located in Iru, on the outskirts of Tallinn and will have the capacity to burn 220.000 tons of waste annually. To make sure the plant to start operating in 2012 the completion deadline for the plant is set on 11.11.2011 and the construction is to start this summer.

Thermal energy capacity of the new WtE plant will be 50 MW, while the power generating capacity is planned for 17 MW. This should complement the existing capacities of the Iru power plant (648 MW of heat and 190 MW of electricity). The residual ash from the incineration process is planned to be sent either to the Vaivara landfill or to Germany for filling of old coal mines. The Iru project would use the waste from the Harju County, Tallinn, Lääne-Viru County, Rapla County, Lääne County and partially the Ida-Viru County. According to calculations the project is profitable, even though it should reduce the costs the counties have with waste management by accepting the wastes for incineration at the new WtE plant at a 15-20 % lower price than at the Jõelähtme landfill.

“Although the heating value of the ordinary municipal solid waste is not comparable to that of oil shale, over 300.000 tons of waste suitable for energy use is deposited into Estonian landfills every year. Even after our WtE plant is built, 100.000 tons of waste will continue to be landfilled every year and in the future an environmentally friendly way of recovering of this share of waste should be found as well. Thus we would at some point be able to catch up with Germany, where today only 1 % of municipal waste is landfilled,” said the director of Eesti Energia Renewable Energy Ando Leppiman.