A new waste-to-energy plant is to be built on a 6.27 ha site at Olsztyn, in Poland’s Warmińsko-Mazurskie region. It will ensure effective waste management, in line with the EU’s waste hierarchy and help meet local residents’ energy needs by recovering heat and electricity from treated municipal solid waste through high-efficiency cogeneration.
- 10 January 2020
Infrastructure at the plant will include a grate boiler with an operating range of 9-15 MJ/kg and a turbine set with installations and associated facilities.
Two challenges, one response
The capacity of the new plant is of 110 000 tons per year (t/year), which corresponds to the forecasted amount of residual waste in the region of Warmińsko-Mazurskie. This residual waste is not recyclable and, due to its flammable properties, cannot be put into landfill. Moreover, the region suffers from a shortage of installations with the capacity to neutralise it.
At the same time, Olsztyn’s Michelin combined heat and power plant is to be closed down and will stop supplying heat for municipal purposes, giving rise to a need to bolster heat generation capacity in the area.
As combustible municipal solid waste should be managed by energy recovery, district heating company MPEC will construct a waste-to-energy plant which will use residual waste as a new heat source. In this way, the plant will create a synergy that will have positive ecological and economic effects without risking non-compliance with EU recycling and landfill requirements.
Public-private partnership
A public-private partnership has been formed to implement the project: MPEC is the public partner; the private partner “Dobra Energia dla Olsztyna”– selected through an open call for tender – will be responsible for design, building, financing and operating the plant for 25 years. Afterwards, ownership will revert to MPEC.
By transforming the combustible fraction of municipal solid waste in Warmińsko-Mazurskie into energy, the project aims to enhance the capacity and efficiency of Olsztyn’s municipal heating system, thus benefiting residents. It should also reduce the environmental impact of heating by helping to cut emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.
The plant’s contribution to improving waste management in the region will bring further environmental benefits, in particular eliminating the need to create a new landfill site.
Total investment and EU funding
Total investment for the project “Construction of a thermal conversion plant for municipal waste energy fraction , with recovery of electricity and heat, as well as accompanying infrastructure in Olsztyn” is EUR 183 276 653, with the EU’s Cohesion Fund contributing EUR 39 608 601 through the “Infrastructure and Environment” Operational Programme for the 2014-2020 programming period. The investment falls under the priority “Environmental protection, including adaptation to climate change”.