Abu Dhabi, UAE: Renewable energy company, Masdar has announced that it is developing a waste-to-energy plant in Sharjah in partnership with environmental management company, Bee’ah.

Diverting as much as 300,000 tonnes of solid waste from landfill each year, the project, the company said, will help Sharjah reach its “zero waste-to-landfill” target by 2020, and the UAE deliver on its 2021 goal of diverting 75% of solid waste from landfills.

According to the announcement, Masdar and Bee’ah signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on the development of new energy projects at the recently held Abu Dhabi Sustainable Week 2017. The facility, the announcement highlighted, will incinerate up to 37.5 tonnes of solid waste per hour to generate 30 megawatts (MW) of energy. This, it added, will add more power to what is produced by Bee’ah’s auxiliary waste-to-energy project, which will eventually produce a total of 90MW supplied to the Sharjah electricity grid.

“Today marks the first venture in the realisation of the partnership that we announced with Masdar last year,” said Khaled Al Huraimel, Group CEO of Bee’ah. “The cutting-edge waste-to-energy plant in Sharjah is a concrete example of what this strategic partnership will deliver to the UAE and the communities that we serve. We, at Bee’ah, have always been driven by our mission to make the UAE an icon of environmental best practices, and this plant will help us achieve our ambitious environmental goals for the Emirate.”

Commenting on the collaboration, Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, Chief Executive Officer of Masdar, added: “With GCC countries having among the highest rates of per-capita waste production in the world, sustainable waste management solutions are both critically important and a clear business opportunity. Masdar will combine its proven expertise in renewable energy project development over the last ten years with Bee’ah’s track record in environmentally responsible waste management, to deliver a project that will catalyse further investment in waste-to-energy infrastructure in the UAE and beyond.”