Application of Waste-to-Energy Solutions in Islands
Opportunities & Considerations
Nafsika ZEVGOLIS
Project Manager
EXERGIA S.A., Energy and Environment Consultants
ABSTRACT
The European insular areas present specific characteristics regarding solid waste management and
energy supply, which lead to different solutions compared to the ones applied to continental
regions. Waste to energy technologies can provide win-win situations for both waste management
and energy generation; they contribute to reducing waste volumes sent to sanitary landfills while at
the same time support insular energy systems. However, and despite the fact that such technologies
are commercially proven, waste to energy solutions in islands are still scarce. Action needs to be
undertaken to promote waste to energy solutions, improve their public acceptance and place them in
the right context; that is in an integrated waste management framework, which will guarantee that
the optimum solution for each specific case is sought and that other waste management options are
not overlooked.
INTRODUCTION
Islands have particular characteristics regarding waste disposal and energy supply that distinguish
them from mainland areas. They have a fragile environment due to their natural isolation with
significant and often unique ecological value. Space is limited and valuable for the farming
activities of the local population, while the continuously increase of tourism activities and the shift
to modern life-style pose stress to the environment as waste volumes increase rapidly. In addition
there is population explosion during the tourist season. As a result, landfilling of waste is becoming
problematic for practically all islands and appropriate landfill sites (away from villages, beaches,
areas of natural beauty and ecologically fragile environments) are scarce.
Further to the unique characteristics associated with waste disposal, most islands present significant
particularities regarding energy supply. Specifically, most islands are not connected to the mainland
electricity grids and the production of electricity is based on fuel oil, which has to be transported
with relative small tankers. As a result, islands exhibit significantly larger energy production costs
than continental areas, face problems meeting electricity demand during peak seasons and suffer
from the environmental impacts related to fossil fuel-dependent energy production.
Waste disposal with energy recovery comes emerges as a prominent solution that could lead to both
the reduction of the volumes of waste that are send to landfill – reducing thus the need for landfill
sites – and the coverage of energy demand. The relevant waste-to-energy technologies exist and
have been successfully applied in both Europe and internationally. Nevertheless, waste-to-energy
applications in EU islands are still scarce.
The European Commission, within the 5th Framework Programme, has assigned the consortium led
by EXERGIA the task of exploring the specific characteristics of EU island communities regarding
waste production and energy supply, in order to develop a strategy for the promotion of waste-toenergy solutions in such communities. Partners to the consortium are also the Network of European
Islands (ISLENET), the Association for Sustainable Use and Recovery of Resources in Europe
(ASSURRE), Kefalonia and Ithaki Development Company (ANEKI), the Municipality of Gotland
(GOKO), Transenergie (TRE) – representing Martinique and Guadeloupe, the Regional Energy
Agency of Crete (REAC), Multiss S.pa (PEPS), representing Sicily, TIRME sa, representing
Mallorca, the Applied Energy Centre of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism (AEC) representing Cyprus, Keep the Archipelago Tidy Association (PSS) – representing Nagu Nauvo,
Consorzio APEM (APEM) – representing Sardinia, the Isle of Wight Council, and the Shetland
Islands Council (SIC).
OBJECTIVES
The programmes’s objectives, as formulated in co-operation with the European Commission, are
the following:
•
Provide islands with sustainable environmentally, technically and economically feasible
indigenous energy supply options based on waste management.
•
Disseminate proven methods of using solid waste as an energy supply source
•
Integrate clean and renewable energy produced from waste into the energy supply system
of islands
•
Deal with the increasingly alarming waste disposal problem of islands, which in several
cases has been uncontrolled and has resulted into serious degradation of the local
environment and ecology.
METHODOLOGY
The methodology used comprised the following series of actions:
•
Development of specifications for the collection of data from the island communities that
participate in the programme
•
Collection of data in the form of substantiated reports coming from the island communities,
including:
o Description of the island communities (demographic figures, economic development
figures, geography, geology and hydrogeology data, transport networks, etc.)
o Municipal Solid Waste Management Policy (waste management practices, infrastructure,
policy framework, roles and responsibilities, etc.)
o Production of municipal solid waste
o Energy production (type and capacity of power plants, fuel types, quantities, waste-toenergy applications, grid coverage, etc.)
o Forecasts regarding future waste production, energy demand, plans for electricity production
and waste management infrastructure.
•
Comparative assessment of the collected data in order to group islands with similar
characteristics concerning municipal solid waste management practices and energy production.
•
Identification of potential obstacles to the development of waste-to-energy applications in the
project islands
•
Development of a strategic approach for the promotion of waste-to-energy applications in island
communities taking under consideration the specific characteristics of each island and the
obstacles that could arise in the process
•
Consultation with all involved parties in order to test the applicability of the proposed strategic
approach
The project is on going. The main findings from the analysis of the data are presented below.
MAIN FINDINGS
The island communities that participate in the programme appear to greatly diversify in terms of
their socio-economic characteristics. The population density of the project islands appears is given
in Figure 1.
Croatian Islands
Shetland Islands
Isle of Wight
Sicily
Nagu Nauvo
Cyprus
Mallorca
Sardinia
Crete
Guadeloupe
Martinique
Gotland
Kefalonia
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
Population/Km2
Figure 1.
Population density in the project Islands
With the exception of Shetland Islands, the participating islands illustrate a strong dependence on
the services sector (70-75% of economic activity) and especially tourism. This is to be expected,
since most of them are located in high-demand touristic areas such as the Mediterranean and the
Caribbean. Even northern European islands, such as Gotland and Nauvo present a strong
dependence on tourism. The other economic activities that are present in the islands are agriculture
and fishery. Industrial activity is present mainly in the biggest islands (e.g. Crete, Sardinia, and
Sicily).
Croatian Islands
Shetland Islands
Isle of Wight
Sicily
Nagu Nauvo
Cyprus
Mallorca
Sardinia
Crete
Guadeloupe
Martinique
Gotland
-500
0
500
1.000
Tourists number (percentage over permanent population, %)
Figure 2.
Tourism activity in the project islands
1.500
2.000
Power Plants (oil fired)
Power Plants (coal fired)
Cement Works
Industry
Kefalonia
-
-
-
-
Gotland
-
-
9
Oil refinery, chemicals
2 heavy oil fired plants with
total capacity of 360 MW
Martinique
1 diesel fired plant of 160
MW
2 plants of 192.8 and 321.6
MW
Guadeloupe
Crete
-
-
1 CHP plant dual fueled
(coal and bagasse) of 64
MW
-
-
-
-
Chemicals, plastics, paper,
textiles, food, ceramics
Chemicals, plastics, oil refinery
Sardinia
4 thermoelectric plants of 960 MW, 640 MW, 320 MW, and
75 MW, and 1 CHP plant of 560 MW
-
Mallorca
total capacity approximately
206 MW
total capacity
approximately 1,150 MW
-
Cyprus
3 plants of 360 MW, 260 MW
and 180 MW
-
9
-
-
-
-
Sicily
3 thermoelectric power
plants of approximately
3,440 MW
-
-
Oil refinery, automobile
production
Isle of Wight
1 back-up oil fired power
plant
-
-
-
Shetland Islands
1 oil fired plant of 67 MW
-
-
-
Croatian Islands
-
-
-
Oil refinery, textile industry, food
processing
Nagu Nauvo
Table 1.
Food & beverages, clothing,
paper, chemicals
Food, beverages & tobacco,
textile, and leather, paper,
chemicals, rubber & plastics, oil
refinery, etc.
Electricity generation and industrial activity
As evidenced by Figure 3 the amount of waste produced does not vary significantly between the
participating islands, with the exception of Nagu-Nauvo and Shetland islands that import waste
from neighbouring areas. Nevertheless, waste quantities reported should be considered conservative
estimates, since they don’t include data on illegal waste dumping, which is a common practice in
the Mediterranean (especially in Greece).
Croatian Islands
Shetland Islands
Isle of Wight
Sicily
Nagu Nauvo
Cyprus
Mallorca
Sardinia
Crete
Guadeloupe
Martinique
Gotland
Kefalonia
0,00
0,50
1,00
1,50
tons/inhabitant
2,00
2,50
Figure 3.
Municipal Solid Waste production per inhabitant for 2001
Municipal Solid Waste Management differs significantly from one island to the other. Almost half
of the project islands rely solely on landfilling for waste disposal. The most advanced islands in
terms of waste management are Mallorca, Gotland, Sardinia, the Shetland Islands, and the Isle of
Wight. These islands practice an integrated waste management system for their municipal wastes
incorporating waste separation, recycling, composting, and energy recovery as part of their system.
Special mention needs to be made for Nauvo, which composts 70% of each waste while transferring
the rest to continental areas for disposal.
Landfilling
Croatian Islands
Recycling
Composting
Shetland Islands
Incineration
Transfer
Isle of Wight
Sicily
Nagu Nauvo
Cyprus
Mallorca
Sardinia
Crete
Guadeloupe
Martinique
Gotland
Kefalonia
0%
20%
Figure 4.
40%
60%
80%
100%
Municipal Waste Management in the project islands
The majority of the project islands reported a steady annual increase in waste production for the last
years. This increase varies between 0.7% per year in Sardinia for the last 5 year to 120% in total for
Kefalonia for the same period.
The increase in waste production in combination to the present waste management infrastructure,
mainly landfill sites, poses great stresses to the local communities, especially in the Southern
Mediterranean islands. It should be pointed out that according to the reported data most landfill sites
will exceed their life expectancy within the next five years. This is particular the case for Kefalonia,
Crete, Cyprus and Sardinia.
The significant increase in the service sector, and especially the tourism sector, that is the reality for
most island communities creates an increasing demand for energy and especially for electricity.
Electricity consumption, for instance in Cyprus has increased by 55% during 1990-2000, while in
Crete is increasing by 7% yearly. According to the reported data, this trend is not going to be
reversed in the near future.
In the vast majority of the project islands, energy is produced from imported resources (mainly oil)
and consequently costs significantly more than energy production in the mainland. Wherever
possible, e.g. Kefalonia and Nauvo, the island are connected to the mainland electricity grid. In
other cases – e.g. Crete, Gotland, Martinique and Guadeloupe – emphasis is given over the last
years in the development of renewable energy sources, according to the local potential.
According to the above-mentioned information, the project islands vary significantly in terms of
waste management systems and energy supply options. The following categorization was made
according to their waste management practices:
1 Category 1: This category includes the islands that have serious problems with
waste disposal, partly due to extensive illegal dumping and mainly because
landfilling is the only option or the main option for waste disposal (e.g.
Kefalonia, Cyprus, Crete, and the Croatian islands).
2 Category 2: This category includes the islands that although landfilling is the
main waste management option, there seem to have concrete plans for
infrastructure development that include composting, recycling and thermal
treatment of municipal solid waste with energy recovery (e.g. Guadeloupe,
Martinique and Sicily).
3 Category 3: This category includes islands that have an integrated waste
management system and already apply waste-to-energy solutions (e.g. Isle of
Wight, the Shetlands, Gotland, Mallorca, and Sardinia).
4 Category 4: This category includes islands that waste is mostly transferred on the
mainland for treatment and disposal although the residents of the island wish to
change that and treat waste locally. (e.g. Nagu Nauvo).
OBSTACLES TO THE APPLICATION OF WASTE-TO-ENERGY SOLUTIONS
In order to facilitate the development of a strategy for the promotion of waste-to-energy
technologies, of predominant importance was the identification of potential obstacles that could be
raised. The island partners were requested to identify the most important barriers that could be
posed in the application of waste-to-energy solutions with the help of a questionnaire, which is
presented in Annex II of this report.
According the responses received by the island partners, in most cases the most important barrier to
the application of waste-to-energy solutions was reported to be public perception over the
environmental and health risks of incinerators and the possible adverse effects these plants could
have for the value of the land near the plant.
The next most important barrier is the lack of political will to promote this type of waste
management solutions, even in remote areas where recycling and re-use of waste is an expensive
option to waste management.
As long as the political will is there and the public has accepted waste-to-energy solutions as a
means to solve the waste problem, funding is not considered an issue in most cases, or at least is not
as high up on the list for most islands as it is public concern or political will.
In Sicily and in Crete it was reported a lack of knowledge regarding technical issues associated with
incinerators and this was perceived to be a problem for the application of such plants.
In Cyprus what seems to be predominant is the perception people hold from the operation of old
incinerators in Europe, which used to cause more environmental problems that they were supposed
to solve.
In Shetland Islands, the government is placing barriers in the application of waste-to-energy
applications in the form of favouring recycling and re-use over waste incineration. The new policy
states that only waste to energy plants for single waste types (pyrolisis or gasification) will be
approved except in exceptional circumstances, arguing that a mixed waste stream plant does not
represent the BEO.
CONSIDERATIONS
The energy exploitation of municipal solid waste can provide a sustainable solution to the waste
management problem of island communities and at the same time contribute to addressing the
challenges of the increase in energy demand.
The existing applications of waste-to-energy plants in islands have demonstrated that these plants
are reliable, contribute highly to the decrease in the volume of waste landfilled and, as long as they
comply with the EC Waste Incineration Directive and the relevant emission control provisions, have
acceptable environmental performance.
Nevertheless, the promotion of waste-to-energy application at a greater scale in the island
communities across Europe, should take under consideration the following parameters, while
setting up a strategy for the promotion of WtE :
-
Energy exploitation of solid waste should only be considered as one of the existing
choices in waste management and, as such, should be seen within the framework of an
integrated waste management system.
-
When designing a waste management strategy, island communities should follow, as far
as practicable, the hierarchy of options proposed by EU legislation; according to this
hierarchy, reduction at source and recycling/reusing of materials should be examined
before energy exploitation of waste is considered
-
a wide public campaign on the advantages, disadvantages and the environmental
consequences related to energy recovery from municipal solid waste should be
organized in order to prevent public opposition to such options.