Improvements in industry best practices: Optimizing plant design to avoid under-performing plant systems and equipment. Modern WTE projects are not only more energy efficient, they are also more profitable because the industry has developed more cost-effective technologies as multiple generations of WTE projects have been implemented around the world.

Plant owners and regulators are seeking less-costly options in plant design and services, breaking from the traditional approach of relying on a handful of preferred large international WTE companies, helping to discourage monopolies, with their related impact on capital expenditures and annual operations and maintenance expenses.

China is becoming a player in promoting more cost-effective WTE plants. Modern Chinese WTE technology, from both a quality and cost perspective, can be extremely competitive with the industry’s leading OEM and engineering, procurement and construction contractors.

Access to greater number of WTE technology options Large, high-priced international firms are not the only, or even the most efficient, option available. Deltaway now has access to proven technologies due to the expiration of numerous patents in the field.

Financing of a properly structured WTE project is increasingly straightforward. Now that WTE projects are more mainstream, investors have access to solid data to estimate a project’s operating costs and revenue stream, using long-term municipal solid waste supply and power purchase agreements . Two of the biggest unknowns—projected revenue and projected expenses—can now be forecast with reasonable certainty, reducing risk and financing costs. Subsidies, such as tax benefits, attractive financing supplied by a contractor’s host country, and the sale of carbon credits, can further reduce costs.