The Ministry of Climate Change, Environment and Energy has announced that the waste-to-energy plant in Addu City is expected to become operational in 2028.
The government is implementing a number of regional projects to provide a long-term solution to waste management challenges across the Maldives.
Speaking on PSM News, Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Climate Change, Environment and Energy Ahmed Nizam said the main construction of the Addu waste-to-energy plant had already been completed. He said the facility has the capacity to process 50 tonnes of waste a day and generate 1.5 megawatts of electricity.
Deputy Minister Nizam said the plant alone was not sufficient to operate a fully functional regional waste management centre. He noted that work is under way to develop the additional infrastructure needed to enable the facility to operate at full capacity, with financial assistance from the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development. Based on the current progress of the project, he said the facility is expected to begin operations in 2028.
"With the way work is progressing right now, we expect this project to be completed around the middle of 2028, allowing the facility to begin operations. Although the waste-to-energy plant itself is structurally complete, it cannot yet be operated because the additional components required to make the facility fully functional, including the landfill and waste sorting facility, are being developed under the ongoing project. Once those are completed, it will become a complete system," Nizam said.
The waste-to-energy plant, which converts waste into electricity through incineration, was completed in Addu in 2023 at a cost of USD 16 million funded through the Maldives Green Fund.
The government has decided to operate the facility through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP). However, the Ministry of Climate Change, Environment and Energy said several legal and regulatory procedures must be completed before the project can be handed over to a private operator. As a result, no date has yet been set for the transfer of operations.