Africa’s first waste-to-energy

Africa’s first waste-to-energy power plant opening in Cape Town

That’s right, a new power plant that converts solid waste into energy is opening in Athlone and it’s the first of its kind on the continent.

Africa’s first waste-to-energy

Ah man what an achievement for the Mother City. The very first industrial scale solid waste-to-energy power plant in all of Africa is set to open in Cape Town, and will be converting solid municipal, organic waste into clean energy.

According to EngineeringNews, the R400 million plant, built by New Horizons Energy, will consume up to 5–t/d of waste into energy, creating 80 full time jobs and over a hundred indirect jobs.

“We have been working on this for years. It’s been a dream come true, and we plan to have everything fully commissioned by May,” said  Egmond Ottermann, New Horizons Energy CEO.

Some of the byproducts of the process include organic fertiliser, liquid carbon dioxide, compressed biomethane and fuel. The project has also attracted the attention of Afrox, one of the country’s largest gas suppliers, who will be buying gas from the plant.