The decade-long saga that is the €400 million incinerator earmarked for Maghtab that will take most of Malta’s municipal waste and convert it into energy has opened a new chapter with a Spanish-German consortium submitting the lowest bid for the project.
According to the bids submitted by four different consortia for the project – one of the largest ever to be awarded by the Maltese government – a consortium comprising Spanish and German multinational companies has made the cheapest offer.
According to the Department of Contracts, which is coordinating the tender with the close input of the government’s waste agency WasteServ, Maghtab Gdid Energija Nadifa submitted a bid of almost €395 million, which is slightly under the tender’s estimated value.
The consortium is made up of Urbaser S.A.U., a Spanish recycling multinational based in Madrid that is active in 28 countries, Gruppo Cobra, another Spanish multinational, and German industrial equipment supplier Standardkessel Baumgarte GmbH S.A.
Maghtab Gdid Energija Nadifa’s submission is some €28 million cheaper than its closest rival, Sacyr Industrial Operacion, another Spanish consortium, which lodged a €422 million bid.
Two other consortia – the French Paprec Energies, joined by the Maltese Bonnici Group (€617 million) and Japanese Hitachi Zosen Inova AG (€983 million) – were the other two consortia to have submitted an offer.
According to the Department of Contracts, the process will now move on to the negotiations stage.
Despite being one of the largest procurement processes to ever be awarded by a Maltese government in terms of value, public information about the process is being kept low-key.
Already three years behind schedule, the project is still in its embryonic stage and the government has not indicated when it will be up and running.
The need for an incinerator has been on Malta’s waste agenda for decades.
Malta is one of the EU’s biggest laggards in the area with landfilling, an EU red line, still being the country’s predominant means of waste disposal.
The government aims through the project to incinerate 192,000 tons of domestic non-recyclable waste a year and in the process produce 5% of the nation’s energy requirements.
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An incinerator is a system that BURNS organic waste at relatively low temperatures when compared to more advanced technology. Besides the fact that an incinerator does not capture the CO2 and in principal does not meet any EU targets let alone the targets agreed to at the United Nations various agreements since 1994. An incinerator is expensive to run and produces some 60% in Fly Ash and Bottom Ash.
For the same capital expenditure of some 400 million there is more advanced technology that meets all environmental regulations, does not contaminate land sea and air will convert into Valuable Green Energy products such as Syngas, hydrogen, methanol ,ethanol, direct electricity and more. Malta produces some 1000 tons daily of organic waste. The incinerator is going to burn only an approximate 300 tons daily.
For 400 million a more advanced technology will CONVERT 600 tons daily and if it feeds the electricity grid then approximately half of Malta will be supplied. However………..
Let’s hope they don’t use Maltese builders and use Germans who know how to put cement onto a brick, use scaffolding and follow EU health and safety rules while on site.
When one has a look at a TECHNICAL Solution , there are no shortcuts except cheap material and lack of process control equipment. In this case there is a trend in the quotes
Japanese ?1000
French ? 600
Spanish Consrtium ? 422
Local Spanish Consrtium ? 398
Knowing Japanese equipment and mentality, and the Local Mentality , the large discrepancy reason is clear.
I rest my case.
It is not only the cheapest price which has to be taken into consideration but every detail involved as there is quite a difference in quotes.. There is a saying that cheap is more expensive on the long run so I do hope that proper evaluations are done beforehand .