Project Finance International (PFI), a leading global reference in the field of industrial project finance, has awarded the Dubai Waste-to-Energy project the Deal of the Year 2021 award for the Middle East & Africa region. The financing of this 1.2 billion dollar public-private partnership was closed in June 2021.
Hans Beerlandt, Head of Finance at BESIX Group: “Our BESIX Group teams have worked for 4 years to create this world-class project with our client Dubai Municipality and our partners. Together we conceptualised and designed the project, we set up and participated in the financing, we are now building it, and we will manage its operations and maintenance for 35 years. We are therefore very proud to see this project winning the ‘Deal of the Year’ award from such a prestigious institution as PFI. I would also like to thank our co-developers as well as our advisors and debt provider group who made the realisation of this challenging project possible.”
The Dubai Waste-to-Energy plant is the world’s largest to be built in a single phase. When operational, it will have the capacity to process 1.9 million tonnes of municipal waste per year and generate 200 MW of electricity. The project is developed by a consortium comprising BESIX, Hitachi Zosen Inova, Dubai Holding, DUBAL Holding, Itochu Corporation and Tech Group.
In an article published in Project Finance International, several elements of the project are highlighted, including the quality of the financing, the cooperative approach between all stakeholders, the sustainability of the technologies used and the pioneering aspects of this contract that set a precedent for the region: “[…] the Warsan Waste to Energy Plant will be one of the largest waste-to-energy plants developed anywhere in the world […]. Cooperation from both sides of the table was a critical feature […]. Warsan Waste to Energy has created a reference framework and a suite of documents that future PPP’s in Dubai and possibly elsewhere in the region can draw from […]. The project complies with various international guidelines and standards that impose some of the stringent environmental conditions in the world […]. By doing so, the plant will make a very important contribution to the UAE’s recent pledge, made alongside more than 100 other countries at COP26 in Glasgow, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 30 per cent this decade […]. The project is likely to be seen in the future as a watershed deal for the growth of the PPP sector in Dubai and the UAE […].”
BESIX: A growing portfolio of public-private partnerships
BESIX has a portfolio of first-class concessions in transport and marine infrastructure, water and waste treatment and sustainable energy production.
In the Middle East, the Dubai Waste-to-Energy project adds to BESIX's rapidly growing portfolio of environmental public-private partnerships. This includes infrastructure for wastewater management, treatment and valorisation, notably in Ajman via Ajman Sewerage and in Abu Dhabi with the ISTP2 venture. In addition to these projects, BESIX is actively involved in the region's first Refuse Derived Fuel installation in Umm Al Quwain, a sewage sludge treatment unit for the production of sustainable energy in Ajman and a unit for the transformation of landfill gas into sustainable energy in Dubai.
More recently, BESIX is focusing on the development of social infrastructure for the region.
In Western Europe, BESIX is actively involved in the long-term operations & maintenance of locks (the Limmel Flood Barrier and the Princess Beatrix Lock in the Netherlands), road infrastructure (A6 and Coen Tunnel in the Netherlands, Leopold II Tunnel in Brussels), and buildings (the new Antwerp Police Station which is now in its last year of construction).