In the early morning of Jebel Ali, trucks loaded with urban household waste are no longer heading towards landfills. With the closure of local landfills, these wastes have found a new destination - a waste to energy facility with a planned daily processing capacity of up to 6000 tons. Recently, Dubai City Hall solicited letters of intent from international and local developers for the Jebel Ali Waste to Energy PPP project, with a deadline for submission set for September 27, 2026.

From landfill to incinerator

The population expansion and commercial prosperity have led to a continuous increase in the amount of solid waste generated in Dubai. According to Dubai's comprehensive waste management strategy, the city aims to achieve zero landfill waste by 2041. The Jebel Ali facility is a key outcome of this strategy, with the goal of expanding the capacity for waste resource utilization and minimizing reliance on landfills.

Dubai has already walked this road once. The first phase of the waste to energy plant located in Warsan is Dubai's first large-scale waste to energy PPP project, with an investment of approximately 4 billion dirhams (approximately 1.1 billion US dollars). It can process approximately 1.9 million tons of municipal solid waste annually and has a maximum power generation capacity of 220 megawatts. It will be fully operational commercially in 2024. The project was signed a power purchase agreement between Dubai Electricity and Water Authority and Dubai Waste Management Company in February 2023, and the project company completed financing closure as early as June 2021.

Two phases of the project are progressing simultaneously

Jebel Ali is not an isolated new project. In February of this year, the City Hall issued a consultation tender for the Warsan Phase II facility located near the Al Aweer sewage treatment plant in Warsan District 2, with an expected investment of approximately $500 million and a consulting contract period of 6 years. On one hand, there is a phase one expansion, and on the other hand, there is a new site selection. Dubai is simultaneously expanding its basic infrastructure for waste incineration and energy recovery.

The pace of progress for the Jebel Ali project is also clear: after the EOI is submitted, the city hall will conduct a pre qualification review later this year and release the formal proposal solicitation document in the first quarter of next year. The consulting team is led by Tribe Infrastructure Group in Abu Dhabi, with participation from Ashurst in the UK and Fichtner in Germany.

New opportunities for developers

For developers, opportunities lie within the model. The project adopts a PPP structure of development, financing, and operation, and participants receive not only a bill of quantities, but also a long-term asset. Warsan Phase One is a sample: a consortium consisting of Dubai Holdings, Dubai Aluminium, Tech Group, and Itochu Corporation, developed under a 35 year franchise, with BESIX Group and Hitachi Zosen Inova's joint venture undertaking the main contracting project.

From a regional perspective, the scale of the Middle East waste to energy market is expected to reach approximately 1.78 billion US dollars in 2024 and 2.48 billion US dollars in 2033, with the United Arab Emirates accounting for nearly half of the market share. The processing capacity of 6000 tons per day is sufficient to make Jebel Ali one of the most anticipated solid waste assets in the region.Editor/Yang Meiling