Page 66 - Waste-to-Energy in the Danube Strategy Region. Challenges and Prospects

4.4 Infrastructural challenges

Generally, the infrastructural challenges faced by WtE facilities include the need to ensure

sufficient interconnection and capacity of the site as well as access to infrastructure and the
requirement to locate the plant near an urban area. The Zwentendorf waste utilization plant has

developed a unique system to address such challenges. This system is one of the most significant

reasons why the plant is considered to be a showcase project in environmental engineering
without equal in the world.

The Zwentendorf plant is located near the capital city of Vienna, a major waste-generating

urban area, but provides district heating primarily to communities in its vicinity, namely

Zwentendorf and St. Pölten. In terms of infrastructure access, the plant takes advantage of existing
infrastructure by virtue of its location near coal and gas power stations. This system of energetic

interplay enables the plant to transfer its produced steam from the incineration plant to the steam

systems of adjacent power stations for the purpose of generating electricity (EVN

Abfallverwertung 2018a).
A major challenge is to manage the infrastructure for waste delivery by train and truck.

The original agreement with the local government was to receive 90% by rail and 10% by truck

with a maximum of 50 trucks per day in order to avoid additional emissions from road transport

and maintain traffic levels. Currently, however, due to the economic reasons discussed above,
trucks now deliver 27% of waste, primarily from local areas. With the increase in truck deliveries,

the upper limit of 50 truckloads per day was easily reached and thus the challenge to comply with

the rules of the agreement has arisen. The solution has been to use more trucks with trailers

(Austrian Court of Audit 2017). Moreover, to overcome infrastructural restrictions and short-term
supply fluctuations during weekends and holidays, Zwentendorf has built the largest waste

3
storage capacity in Austria. The storage capacity of 40,000 m allows the plant to maintain
operations for a maximum of 10 days without additional waste delivery (Federal Ministry of

Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management 2015).
Despite the greater share of road delivery than planned, the Zwentendorf plant continues

to rely on the well-developed regional railway infrastructure for the majority of its waste deliveries.

Project co-funded by the European Union
58