Energy doesn’t come much cleaner and greener than this…

Abu Dhabi Waste Management Center and Emirates Water and Electricity Company signed off on a virtual agreement to bring two new eco-friendy energy generating plants to the UAE, today.

These ‘waste-to-energy’ facilities will take a vast chunk of the country’s refuse that was headed to landfill, and convert it — via the wonders of modern science — into energy.

One of the plants will be based in Al Ain, but the larger of the two will be constructed within the emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Waste-to-energy plants work by using garbage as a fuel, burning it to heat water, the steam from which is then used to drive turbines, and voila, guilt-free energy.

This type of facility does still produce emissions, but the levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) released are far lower than the if the equivalent waste had ended up at a landfill site.

The project is flexing some big green specs

Together the two plants will process up to 1.5 million tonnes of waste every year.

The Abu Dhabi site alone will be responsible for a reduction of around 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 emissions. That’s the equivalent of taking 300,000 cars off the road.

The Abu Dhabi facility will be able to power 22,500 homes, with the Al Ain location generating enough energy to supply a further 15,000.

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Jasim Husain Thabet, CEO and Managing Director of ADPower said, “This MoU [Memorandum of Understanding] represents a significant milestone for Abu Dhabi, as we deliver on the objectives, set out in the UAE Vision 2021, which aims to divert 75 percent of waste away from landfills.”

The announcement is yet another example of Abu Dhabi’s commitment to sustainably and protecting the environment.

Factors, we discovered recently, that go a long way in improving the happiness of Abu Dhabi’s residents.

Our capital was recently ranked the happiest city in the Arab region, in a report that drew links between cities that embrace sustainable development goals, and residents with big smiley faces.

Earlier this year we heard about Abu Dhabi’s pledge to eliminate the use of all plastic bags by 2021, alongside other policies aimed at drastically reducing the other single-use plastics.

Images: Pixabay