When was CEWEP founded and what are its activities?

CEWEP, the Confederation of European Waste-to-Energy Plants, was founded in 2002. Our members include 200 Waste-to-Energy Plants from across Europe.

Waste-to-Energy Plants produce energy from waste delivering electricity and heat to homes and industry. They are an essential part of both the waste management and energy supply network.

The plants, represented by CEWEP, annually treat about 30 million tons of waste in an environmentally sound way. This covers about 60% of the whole European incineration market. The annual turnover is in the region of €4.5 billion.

Waste-to-Energy plants thermally treat Municipal Solid Waste producing electricity and district heating, which is supplied to homes and industry. Thus, they replace the energy produced by conventional power plants, using fossil fuels. This is how they help to reduce CO2 emissions and reaching the aims of the Kyoto-protocol.

Membership of CEWEP underlines a Waste-to-Energy Plant’s commitment to ensuring high environmental standards, achieving very low emissions by operating best available technique and maintaining state of the art energy production from otherwise unusable materials.

CEWEP seeks to help fulfill European Environment policy, e.g. diverting waste from landfills (Landfill Directive) and contributing to the aims of the RES electricity Directive.

Why are financial institutions reluctant to invest in renewables?

Investment in Waste-to-Energy is a long term investment. Due to strict European requirements on emissions efficient filter devices are necessary, which enable very low emissions to be achieved, but which are quite expensive.

Given the comprehensive European legislation that Waste-to-Energy plants must comply with the planning process for plant construction can take some years.

Open and transparent consultation with the public is one of the key aspects of the planning process in order to receive go-ahead to construct a plant. Public awareness and confidence of the environmental benefits of Waste-to-Energy can take time. However, in countries which have more Waste-to-Energy plants public opinion of the industry is good.

It is worth noting also that in countries with higher levels of Waste-to-Energy there are also higher levels of recycling most notably Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

What is the situation with biogas energy in your members’ countries?

CEWEP cannot answer this question.

How can CEWEP help Sofia municipality concerning waste storage?

By thermally treating Municipal Solid Waste in Waste-to-Energy plants the waste weight is reduced by 80% and the volume is reduced by 95%.

What role do you expect CEWEP to play in Central and Eastern Europe?

CEWEP has members in the Czech Republic and Hungary and hope to welcome other waste-to-energy plants from Central and Eastern Europe in the coming years, once they will have installed Waste-to-Energy infrastructure.

We see in the next few years Central and Eastern European countries looking to Waste-to-Energy to help reach EU waste management targets, in particular for reaching the targets established in the EU Landfill Directive, i.e. to divert biodegradable waste from landfills.

CEWEP members are willing to share their experience in operating Waste-to-Energy plants. Some CEWEP members are also willing to invest into new Waste-to-Energy plants themselves.

Do you think that the uptake of RE can be increased without subsidies?

Energy efficiency of Waste-to-Energy plants depends on regional conditions, e.g. infrastructure for supplying homes with district heating. In some Swedish cities up to 50% of the heat demand can be covered by Waste-to-Energy plants, whereas in Southern European countries there is little or no heat demand. So, they are forced only to produce electricity.

The use of energy from renewables, e.g. Municipal Solid Waste, need some support to increase. Good infrastructure and grid access is necessary. Legislation should give priority to energy from renewables. With some support Waste-to-Energy plants could improve their energy efficiency.

What are your ambitions for the CEWEP in South-Eastern Europe?

We hope to see the benefits of this state of the art technology being used to manage waste and produce energy, thus reducing CO2 emissions and contributing to climate protection.