Skip to content Skip to Search
Skip navigation

UAE’s first commercial waste-to-energy plant to power 28,000 homes

By Shane McGinley
The Emirates Waste to Energy company, a joint venture between Sharjah-headquartered Beeah Abu Dhabi-based Masdar. Image supplied.

A new commercial scale waste-to-energy plant inaugurated in Sharjah, one of the seven emirates in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will produce enough electricity to power 28,000 homes per year and help the government to achieve its goal to become the Middle East’s first zero-waste city.

The Emirates Waste to Energy company, a joint venture between Sharjah-headquartered Beeah Abu Dhabi-based Masdar, was inaugurated on Tuesday and is the Middle East’s first commercial scale plant of its kind.

First announced in 2018, the plant will divert up to 300,000 tonnes of waste away from landfills each year. Sharjah currently diverts 76 percent of its waste from landfill sites, and it is aiming to soon be the Middle East’s first zero-waste city.

The plant works by processing the waste at high temperatures, with the resulting heat captured in a boiler and the steam used to power a turbine to produce electricity. The combusted waste will produce 30 megawatts (MW) of low-carbon electricity, enough to power 28,000 homes in Sharjah, saving 45 million cubic metres of natural gas per year.

Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Chairman of Masdar, said: “By turning waste into energy, this new plant exemplifies the economic benefits of sustainable energy production and a low carbon development pathway. The use of this technology reduces waste and landfill use, creates valuable low carbon energy and introduces a new sustainable industry to our region.”

Latest articles

Saudi Arabia’s Fakeeh Care to offload 21% stake in IPO

Fakeeh Care Group, one of the largest private healthcare groups in Saudi Arabia, plans to offload 21.47 percent of its stake through existing and new shares in an initial public offering (IPO). The group, which owns four hospitals in the kingdom, intends to offer 30 million new shares and 19.8 million existing shares to investors […]

Sodic general manager Ayman Amer and Robert De Niro, Nobu Hospitality Co-Founder, at the launch of their third venture in Egypt

Aldar-owned Sodic to build third Nobu hotel in Egypt

Sodic, the Egyptian real estate subsidiary of the UAE’s Aldar Properties and Nobu, the US-headquartered luxury lifestyle brand, have signed up to develop their third hospitality project in Egypt. The Nobu Hotel and Restaurant, which will come up in east Cairo, will open next year, the developer said in a statement. The cost of the […]

The IMF said its Riyadh office will 'promote stability, growth and regional integration'

IMF opens office in Riyadh to bolster Middle East presence 

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will open a new regional office in Riyadh to bolster collaboration with nations in the Middle East and beyond.  The new office will scale up capacity building, regional surveillance, and outreach to promote stability, growth, and regional integration, the Washington-headquartered fund said in a statement.  The office will be pivotal […]

UAE puts up two billion dirhams to pay for flood-damaged homes

The UAE has pledged AED2 billion ($545 million) to help rebuild homes of citizens that were damaged in this month’s floods. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the UAE prime minister and ruler of Dubai, said on X (formerly Twitter) that the UAE’s cabinet of ministers had also formed a committee to assess the flood […]