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| Image by Colt Group via Flickr |
The global market for WTE technologies
was valued at US$19.9bn in 2008. This has been forecasted to increase to
US$26.2bn by 2014. While the biological WTE segment is expected to grow
more rapidly from US$1.4bn in 2008 to approximately US$2.5bn in 2014,
the thermal WTE segment is nonetheless estimated to still constitute the
vast bulk of the entire industry’s worth. This segment was valued at
US$18.5bn in 2008 and is forecasted to expand to US$23.7bn in 2014.
The global market for waste to energy
technologies has shown substantial growth over the last five years,
increasing from $4.83 billion in 2006, to $7.08 billion in 2010 with
continued market growth through the global economic downturn. Over the
coming decade, growth trends are expected to continue, led by expansion
in the US, European, Chinese, and Indian markets. By 2021, based on
continued growth in Asian markets combined with the maturation of
European waste management regulations and European and US climate
mitigation strategies, the annual global market for waste to energy
technologies will exceed $27 billion, for all technologies combined.
Asia-Pacific’s waste-to-energy market
will post substantial growth by 2015, as more countries view the
technology as a sustainable alternative to landfills for disposing waste
while generating clean energy. In its new report, Frost & Sullivan
said the industry could grow at a compound annual rate of 6.7 percent
for thermal waste-to-energy and 9.7 percent for biological
waste-to-energy from 2008 to 2015.
The WTE market in Europe is forecasted to
expand at an exponential rate and will continue to do so for at least
the next 10 years. The continent’s WTE capacity is projected to increase
by around 13 million tonnes, with almost 100 new WTE facilities to come
online by 2012. In 2008, the WTE market in Europe consisted of
approximately 250 players due in large to the use of bulky and expensive
centralized WTE facilities, scattered throughout Western Europe.
