April 6, 2022

Ramboll supports Urbaser to deliver Maldives’ first Waste-to-Energy facility

Ramboll has been appointed the Owner’s Engineer to support Urbaser – a major Spanish Waste Management Company – to deliver the first Waste-to-Energy facility in the Maldives, which will be a benchmark in environmental management in the region. 

The design-build-operate contract is financed by the Ministry of Environment of the Maldives, alongside grants from the Asian Development Bank and Japan Fund for Joint Development Mechanism. The new Waste-to-Energy facility will be a significant step in building the Maldives as a sustainable tourist destination. Once in operation, the facility will yearly divert around 200,000 tonnes of waste from landfills, generate 100,000 MWh of renewable energy and reduce the CO2 emissions by 200,000 tonnes, which is the equivalent of the emissions from 40.000 cars.
Urbaser will be responsible for building and operating the facility for the duration of 15 years. As the Owner’s Engineer, Ramboll will support Urbaser throughout the facility’s design, construction, and commissioning phases, which will involve having our staff permanently located in the Maldives for the coming 3.5 years.
Ramboll’s key tasks will include reviewing the EPC contractor’s design, undertaking factory inspection of the process equipment produced in Southeast Asia and carrying out inspections during the construction and commissioning phases.
This waste-to-energy facility will be constructed on reclaimed land on the small island of Thilafushi – neighbour island to the capital Malé. Building a complex facility on a small island is a challenge of its own. Almost everything needs to be shipped to the island, from construction machinery, construction materials, process equipment, to construction workers. This calls for diligent site logistics.
Geert Stryg, Project Director at Ramboll, commented: "We are pleased to support our client Urbaser on this significant project, and in driving green energy transition in the Maldives. Ramboll has a long legacy in supporting Urbaser as Owner's Engineers on several Waste-to-Energy facilities. Over the years, we have built a solid relationship with the client by successfully demonstrating our leading capabilities in the Waste-to-Energy industry through several similar projects worldwide.”
"This new win further underlines our position as the world's leading Waste-to-Energy consultant and a trusted partner to our clients in driving the green energy transition, creating liveable cities, and supporting the circular economy", concluded Stryg.
The project’s design phase will start in early 2022 while the commercial operation is expected to commence in 2025.
Ramboll has successfully delivered several Waste-to-Energy facilities around the world. Some of the projects that are under construction include the world’s largest Integrated Waste Management Facility located in Singapore, Dubai WMC, the largest facility in the Middle East, and Australia’s first Waste-to-Energy facility in Kwinana.