During the opening of the new SITA “ReEnergy” Waste-to-Energy plant in Roosendaal in the Netherlands on 12 October 2011, Mr. Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, stressed the role waste management plays in achieving the sustainable development goals set by the European Union for 2020:
“The conversion of waste into a new source of energy or into a new raw material has an important role to play in this scenario. Products end up as waste all too often, but it is actually a potential source of energy and new material. And it is available to everyone, worldwide. In Europe, we must make greater efforts in this area, not least because we depend very strongly on imports for our raw materials. Recycling and burning residual products and energy recuperation all have a role to play.”
The new ReEnergy plant in Roosendaal has an annual treatment capacity of 291,000 tonnes of municipal and commercial waste, generating some 275,000 MWh of electricity per year - enough to supply about 70,000 households. The plant will eventually provide district heating to a planned residential development. It also supplies heat to near by greenhouses, leading to savings of about 3.5 million m³ of natural gas.
This state of the art installation meets the strictest European regulations for waste incineration and energy efficiency; in particular it achieves R1 energy efficiency status, set out in the European Waste Framework Directive
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An official translation into English of the speech given by Mr. Van Rompuy (in Dutch) can be downloaded form here:
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A copy of a press release from SITA The Netherlands and (in Dutch) is available from this link http://pers.sita.nl/index.html
Also, here is a link to a short film showing the development of the Roosendaal Waste-to-Energy plant http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7ueYsMUues
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