ADB providing $200m in loans for Chinese waste-to-energy projects

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said yesterday that it will provide up to $200m (£122m) in loans for the construction of waste-to-energy plants in China.

The credit financing will be provided to China Everbright International, a Hong Kong-based waste treatment project developer, to build power plants fuelled by municipal rubbish in second-tier Chinese cities.

Unlike most other waste-to-energy technologies, the plants to be built under the scheme will not use coal as a source of power, said ADB.

The credit line will comprise two $100m loans to China Everbright. They will disbursed by commercial banks, with ADB as the lender of record. Each loan has a maturity of up to 10 years.

The treatment of solid waste is a serious environmental challenge in China, the ADB noted, with the nation generating about 140m tonnes per year with a growth rate of about 10 per cent annually.

Nearly half of the rubbish is untreated and dumped in unsuitable landfills, exposing many urban poor to severe air and water pollution. It also puts them at risk of infectious diseases, the ADB said.

“Waste-to-energy processing with clean technology is the most effective method of treating municipal solid waste since it slashes waste volumes by 90 per cent and eliminates methane gas emissions from the waste treatment process,” according to ADB investment specialist Hisaka Kimura.

China has a target of increasing the amount of municipal rubbish used in waste-fuelled power stations to 30 per cent by 2030, up from one per cent in 2002.

China Everbright has already built a few waste-to-energy plants in China, including one that it claims is the nation’s biggest: a $137m plant in Suzhou city spanning 3.2 square kilometres.

The company said it hopes the ADB project will lead to use of its technology in other developing Asian nations.