Israel’s First PPP-based Waste-Powered Electric Facility to Cost $287 Mn

The Inter-ministerial Committee on Waste Treatment Facilities in Israel has published the Pre-Qualification Procedure, leading to a public tender for the Planning, Financing, Establishment, and Operation of Israel’s First PPP Recovery Energy Facility. The committee is headed by Nehemiah Kind, senior deputy accountant general, which partners with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

The first facility of its kind in Israel will be built in the area of the Shomronei HaTov recycling park, near Jerusalem. It is expected to serve as the central waste treatment facility for the Jerusalem metropolitan area and region. The site will boast an innovative waste sorting facility, along with the most advanced energy recovery facility in the world. These technologies will allow converted waste to generate electricity while adhering to stringent environmental standards.

Focused on progressive energy and reducing landfill use, a facility that enables the Jerusalem municipality to convert waste into electricity will be built within 6 years.

The facility, which is planned to be operational in approximately 6 years, is expected to replace the landfill already approved at the Shomroei HaTov recycling site in order to maximize the government’s effort to avoid environmental damage. This project will be done in collaboration with international companies and managed by a leading energy recovery company. Full construction costs are estimated to total 1 billion Shekels (USD 287 million)

As per the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Finance, this will be the first of a number of similar waste-to-energy facilities being promoted by the inter-ministerial committee in order to create an environmentally friendly alternative to burying waste in landfills in Israel. The facilities will be deployed nationwide in the coming years, bringing Israel into line with European countries with advanced and environmentally friendly waste treatment.

These facilities are part of the Ministry of Environmental Protection’s strategic plan for 2030, which will reduce the proportion of waste put into landfills in Israel from 80 percent to 26 percent.

Minister of Environmental Protection MK Zeev Elkin said, “when I entered my position, I realized that we were lagging behind on waste treatment, and I pushed for a waste treatment strategy aimed at drastically reducing burial of waste in landfills by increasing recycling and building waste-to-energy facilities. I thank the Ministry of Finance for helping to promote this infrastructure project, as it did with national infrastructure projects such as desalination facilities, and I am confident that, within a decade, Israel will be addressing this issue in a completely different way.”