Waste to Energy = Beautiful

The ASM Brescia plant

side view

View of the huge cranes lifting the waste into the furnaces (from remote control room-really impressive how they are moved arournd with a joystick!)

District heating piping

The massive turbine (50 MWe & 150 MWth)

Main Control Room

I had to write an overview of some waste management technologies for a work related presentation yesterday, which led me to go through some of my old files. I came across photos I had taken of the Brescia waste to energy plant (Italy) which I had visited two years ago. It is one of the best plants in the world, in terms of energy production, environmental protection and aesthetics (but that's just my taste). This plant is capable of processing more than half a million tons of municipal waste (incl. biomass), to produce 400 GWh of electrical power and 300 GWh of heat per year. The plant is only 300 meters away from the city's residential quarters, to which it provides so much electricity and district heating. But as one can see from the photos it is not agressive in any way, on the contrary (to me) it looks beautiful in its own industrial way. The plant is so unbelievably clean, you could eat from the floors!, indoors and outdoors, and there are no bad odours whatsoever, despite the two massive combustion furnaces. It is truly a technological and environmental wonder!