The new contract is for a 15-year term, during which Veolia will focus on digitalisation, energy efficiency and decarbonisation. The facility, processes approximately 390,000 tonnes of municipal waste each year (approximately 7 percent of national production), which it transforms into 162,045 MWh of electrical energy. 90 percent of this energy is injected into the public grid, which is equivalent to the electricity needs of a population catchment of approximately 150,000 inhabitants.
The international tender won by Veolia includes not only the continued operation and maintenance of the facility, but also the implementation of a series of performance studies aimed at improving its efficiency and reducing its carbon emissions. With this new phase, the objective is to make this unit one of the most carbon-free waste-to-energy facilities in Portugal.
Key initiatives include studies into the installation of a solar photovoltaic unit for on-site consumption, as well as a carbon capture unit that would reduce the plant's CO₂ emissions by more than 90 percent. Avenues for diversifying the types of energy produced - currently exclusively electric - will also be explored, with the possibility of eventually including thermal energy.
Building on the reliability of the UVE's energy production over the past 25 years, LIPOR is also considering the creation of an energy community, enabling a transition from a regulated tariff to a market tariff that would directly benefit the municipalities served by the facility. This approach brings the circular economy to a close: transforming waste into resources with a key economic benefit.
“This contract perfectly embodies the ambition of our GreenUp strategic plan: to accelerate decarbonisation through concrete solutions such as waste-to-energy” said Estelle Brachlianoff, CEO of Veolia. “By combining our two historical areas of expertise - energy and waste management - we are producing local, renewable, and circular energy for the Porto region, thus strengthening its energy autonomy while significantly reducing its carbon footprint.”
The LIPOR Waste-to-Energy Facility has been in operation since 2000 and has been managed for the past 25 years by Port'Ambiente, a Veolia subsidiary in Portugal. Veolia operates 67 waste-to-energy facilities worldwide, representing a total processing capacity of 11.7 million tonnes per year. The Portuguese facility is now one of the Group's benchmarks.
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