Image inspiration - René Magritte - link
Every so often, a waste infrastructure announcement deserves considerably more attention than the number of tonnes it will process. The newly announced Casablanca Solid Waste Treatment and Valorisation Project is definitely one of them.
Kanadevia Inova (built The Slough Multifuel facility) working in partnership with Moroccan energy company Nareva and Japanese trading group Itochu, has signed a 33.5-year concession agreement with the Municipality of Casablanca for what will become Morocco’s first major integrated waste-to-energy infrastructure project.
The headline numbers are extraordinary. The proposed facility will process approximately 1.5 million tonnes of municipal waste every year. For those familiar with the UK waste industry, the sheer scale of the Casablanca project is perhaps best understood by comparing it with Viridor’s Energy Recovery Facility at Ardley in Oxfordshire. Ardley is itself a substantial facility, capable of processing approximately 378,000 tonnes of residual waste each year. Casablanca is expected to process 1.5 million tonnes annually – almost exactly four times Ardley’s capacity.
Its proposed 126 MW of waste-to-energy generation is also approaching five times Ardley’s generating capability and that's before Casablanca’s additional 50 MW of solar PV and 4 MW of landfill-gas generation are even considered. Put another way, the equivalent of four Ardley sized Energy Recovery Facilities combined into one development, then add a major solar installation and landfill-gas recovery system alongside them. That begins to convey the extraordinary scale of what is being proposed. Casablanca should therefore not simply be regarded as a large waste-to-energy project by African standards; it is a major international scale energy and waste infrastructure development being constructed in Africa.
The investment, likewise is vast. Approximately US$1.5 billion. Construction is expected to begin before the end of this year (2026), subject to completion of financing, with full operation targeted for 2030.
But perhaps the most interesting number isn't 126 MW, 1.5 million tonnes or even $1.5 billion; it's 33.5 years. This isn't simply an incinerator; the concession period tells us something about how Morocco is approaching the project. This is being treated as long-term national and municipal infrastructure.
Located alongside the existing Mediouna landfill, the development combines treatment of Casablanca's future municipal waste with recovery of energy from existing landfill gas and substantial solar generation. Electricity off take arrangements with SRM Casablanca-Settat and Morocco's national electricity and water utility ONEE provide another important piece of the model, essentially bringing several traditionally separate problems together: waste disposal, landfill dependency, renewable and recovered energy, electricity demand, urban growth and carbon reduction.
The consortium expects the project to recover value from approximately 80% of Casablanca's municipal waste through treatment, material and energy recovery, substantially reducing the amount requiring landfill disposal. That alone would represent a profound change in the way one of Africa's major cities manages its resources but the implications could stretch far beyond Morocco.
Africa has an enormous waste problem and an enormous opportunity. It's urbanising rapidly and with growing cities, consumption is increasing and municipal waste generation is rising accordingly but across much of the continent waste infrastructure has struggled to keep pace. Collection remains incomplete in many regions; open dumping remains widespread; modern sanitary landfill capacity is unevenly distributed while sophisticated treatment and resource recovery infrastructure remains relatively uncommon.
At the same time, electricity demand is growing; waste and energy supply have traditionally been treated as separate infrastructure challenges and Casablanca suggests that they don't necessarily have to be. Waste that previously represented an environmental liability can simultaneously become part of an urban energy system.
Large thermal waste-to-energy plants remain remarkably rare in Africa. The best known example is the Reppie facility in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, opened in 2018 and designed to process approximately 1,400 tonnes of waste per day with generating capacity of around 25 MW. Casablanca is in another category. At approximately 1.5 million tonnes annually, it represents more than 4,000 tonnes of municipal waste every day. Its proposed 126 MW thermal WtE capacity is around five times that of Reppie and that's before its 50 MW of solar and 4 MW of landfill-gas generation are considered.
This is no demonstration plant or a small technology trial, It's major metropolitan infrastructure and most importantly, international companies and municipal and energy authorities are prepared to structure it over more than three decades. The biggest obstacle to large scale waste-to-energy development across Africa has never simply been technology. Modern EfW technology is well established. The harder problem is making the economics work. A billion dollar plant needs confidence that waste will arrive tomorrow, next year and twenty years from now. It needs reliable collection, sufficient feedstock, predictable revenues and somebody prepared to buy the generated electricity. It needs municipalities capable of entering long-term agreements and it needs investors prepared to commit enormous amounts of capital and Casablanca appears to bring several of those pieces together.
The municipality provides the long-term waste concession. The city provides an enormous waste stream. Energy off-take arrangements provide a market for the electricity. International technology and investment partners provide expertise and capital and the 33.5-year concession provides the timescale necessary to make major infrastructure investment possible.
Most importantly, this technology allows developing economies to leapfrog infrastructure generations. Large parts of Africa did not build Europe's enormous fixed line telephone networks before adopting mobile communications; they effectively skipped a technological generation and this level of waste infrastructure may present a similar opportunity.
Waste-to-energy is not a magic answer to Africa's waste problem. It requires effective emissions controls, competent regulation, reliable waste collection, appropriate waste composition, responsible management of residues and protection of recycling systems.
Nor should recyclable materials simply be burnt because an incinerator requires feedstock. Africa also has enormous potential for composting and anaerobic digestion because municipal waste in many regions contains a high proportion of organic material.
This Casablanca project should be celebrated by the city, the country, the continent of Africa and the global waste industry as it represents so much more than burning rubbish. More like this (energy from waste) - link - more like this (Morocco) - link - more like this (Africa) - link
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