Should Africa Burn Its Waste To Generate Power?

In Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital, the build-up of waste at hundreds of illegal dumpsites across the city appears never-ending. Piles of plastics and other rubbish clog waterways and wash-up on beaches, creating numerous health hazards, increasing the risk of flooding and threatening the livelihoods of the country's fishermen. The open air burning of waste also releases various noxious gases.

At the same time, Sierra Leone's electricity supply is extremely fragile. Just 21 of households have access to power from the grid. Even the few that do have a connection enjoy only patchy access, since the country's hydroelectric facilities struggle to generate power during the dry season. The government can barely afford an alternative supply from a floating power station operated by Turkish company Karpowership, which has turned off electricity on several occasions due to payments disputes.

The problem of having too much waste and not enough power appears to have an obvious solution: to generate electricity by burning waste.

Infrastructure development company Infinitum Energy is aiming to do exactly this in Freetown. It hopes to start work on a 30 MW waste-to-energy facility later this year, which is designed to generate power through incinerating 365,000 tonnes of waste annually.

"The big impact is going to be the reliability," says Lindsay Nagle, Infinitum's CEO, who points out that Freetown's residents are lucky at present if they get more than a few hours of power each day. "We're adding 40 more electricity to the grid," he tells African Business , noting that the waste-to-energy facility will provide baseload power, rather than the intermittent supply that comes from solar panels.