Abandoning Czech waste-to-energy project will cost Písek hundreds of millions of crowns

Abandoning the project to build a waste-to-energy facility (ZEVO) will cost Písek hundreds of millions of crowns. The city must first of all address how it will manage its waste and what it will use to heat apartments and buildings connected to the district heating network. ZEVO was intended to solve both problems, but residents rejected it in a referendum. Písek Mayor Michal Čapek (ANO) told the Czech News Agency today.

"The city has so far put ten million crowns into the project, which it will have to write off. But that is the absolute minimum compared with what else lies ahead," Čapek said.

ZEVO will probably be replaced by a cogeneration unit in the city's heating system. This is a facility that produces electricity and heat simultaneously from a single fuel source, which in this case will be gas. "Just to give you an idea, buying a cogeneration unit for a city like Písek costs between 400 and 700 million crowns," Čapek said.

Although the investment will be made by the district heating company, the city will have to finance it. The company is already drawing on several loans and would probably only be able to secure another on unfavourable terms. "On top of that, we must soon spend another roughly half a billion crowns on modernising the wastewater treatment plant. So we will have to postpone investments that are not strictly necessary," the mayor said.

According to him, a conventional boiler, costing around 20 to 30 million crowns, could be an alternative for heating municipal buildings. But calculations show that this would not pay off in the long term. "I would compare it to wanting to heat a family home with electric heaters. The upfront investment is low, but operating costs are very high," Čapek said.

The city will probably transport its waste to the waste-to-energy facility in Vráto, which will be operated by the České Budějovice district heating company. The Písek ZEVO was due to burn 50.000 tonnes of mixed municipal waste, bulky waste and other waste suitable for energy recovery each year. Surrounding towns would also have transported waste to the facility. However, residents rejected the project, which was to cost 2,1 billion Kč and for which Písek had secured a 1,3 billion crown grant from the Modernisation Fund.