Photo: Beo Čista Energija
A 103 MW waste-to-energy facility at the Waste Management Center in Vinča has officially started operating on July 1, according to Beo Čista Energija. The company is rehabilitating the old landfill and building a new one in Vinča, near Serbia’s capital Belgrade.
Beo Čista Energija started waste incineration in February 2023 as a final phase of testing its waste-to-energy facility.
The special purpose vehicle company established by Itochu Corporation (Japan), Veolia Group (France) and Marguerite, a pan-European infrastructure investor (Luxembourg), said it commenced on July 1 the full scope of services in line with the public-private partnership contract with the City of Belgrade.
Electricity and heat will be produced by treating up to 340,000 tons of waste annually
According to the firm, together with Belgrade’s Secretariat for Environmental Protection, it utilized a non-recourse credit facility provided by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Development Bank of Austria (OeEB) and built various new facilities including and energy-from-waste system, intended to provide municipal services of waste management, treatment, recovery and disposal.
Recovering green electric and thermal energy by treating up to 340,000 tons per year (43,6 tons per hour) of material will enable supplying electricity to 5% and heat to 10% of households in Belgrade, the firm said.
All facilities are operated and maintained by Veolia expert teams
Beo Čista Energija stressed that waste treatment would substantially reduce waste landfilling. Coupled with the collection and treatment of all leachate from the landfills, and recovery of construction materials from construction and demolition waste, it will contribute to tangible improvement of the environmental conditions in Belgrade and the reduction of emissions in the amount of 210,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, it added.
From July 1, all facilities are operated and maintained by Veoliat under a 25-year operation and maintenance contract.
Many challenges during the construction
Ivana Vilotijević, Acting Deputy Head of the City Administration and Secretary of Environmental Protection, said Belgrade has joined other European capitals committed to environmental responsibility.
According to Vladimir Milovanović, Aleksandar Obradović and Katsuhiko Hoshikawa, managing directors of Beo Čista Energija, they faced many challenges during the construction of the landmark and pathfinder project.
“Now we can proudly provide management of Belgrade’s communal waste in a manner which delivers many environmental benefits and put Serbia’s capital city in a remarkable position in this region with the most modern facilities for waste treatment and management,” they added.
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