Context

A number of commercial, residential, and industrial sectors in various parts of the world are producing municipal waste. In recent decades, several waste-to-energy processes and technologies have emerged for the conversion of this municipal waste to useful energy, notably electricity, apart from steam and fuels.

Waste to Energy Market: Overview 

• Waste to energy involves generation of energy in the form of electricity or heat using municipal solid waste, which is produced from commercial, domestic, and industrial sectors.
• Several technologies are deployed to compress and dispose waste from various sectors to generate steam, fuel cell, and electricity.
• While each technology employs a unique course of action, the end product is utilizable for domestic dwellings, commercial spaces, and industries. 

Waste to Energy Market: Key Trends 

• The global waste to energy market is predominantly driven by the need to develop alternate or unconventional energy sources as conventional forms of energy are nearing exhaustion and to safeguard the environment from ill-effects of conventional fuels.
• Furthermore, several governments around the world are imposing stringent regulations to control production of waste and to control landfill waste.
• To address this, waste treatment plans have been developed to minimize solid waste to become part of landfills or to be exported to third world countries.
• The market is anticipated to be further benefitted from incentives offered by governments in the form of tax rebate and subsidies.

Source: The Hindu