Region approves Žďár nad Sázavou heating plant to burn municipal waste and biomass

The plan to build a heating plant in Žďár nad Sázavou that will burn municipal waste has passed an assessment of its potential environmental impacts. The regional environmental department has issued a favourable binding opinion on it. The document was published today in the EIA information system. The project is being prepared by Satt, a company owned by the city. According to an earlier statement by the company, heat and electricity will be generated from waste collected from part of the Žďár area and from Jihlava, and potentially also from wood chips and other biomass. According to the company, construction should begin in 2028.

The project is expected by the company to cost between CZK 1.6 billion and CZK 1.7 billion at the time of construction. It has been promised a subsidy of CZK 737 million. Director Petr Scheib told journalists this in February this year. The heating plant will be built on the outskirts of Žďár nad Sázavou, near the junction of Brněnská and Jihlavská streets.

Heat for district heating in the town of Žďár nad Sázavou, which has a population of 20,000, is currently supplied mainly by a coal-fired boiler plant operated by engineering and metallurgical company Žďas. The new heating plant is expected to receive around 40,000 tonnes of waste annually, which will then be further sorted. In addition to Žďár nad Sázavou, it will come from Nové Město na Moravě, Bystřice nad Pernštejnem and municipalities within their administrative areas, as well as from Jihlava.

In its final favourable binding opinion, the authority sets conditions for preparation of the project, construction and subsequent operation, for example regarding the 35-metre-high stack that will discharge cleaned flue gas, and the requirement that the designed capacity of the waste-to-energy incineration facility will not exceed 40,000 tonnes of waste per year and 120 tonnes per day. It also includes a requirement to carry out noise-control measurements during trial operation of the facility.

Five authorities and one member of the public submitted comments on the documentation within the statutory deadline. According to the published opinion, the relevant authorities had no fundamental objections to the submitted project. The public submission expressed concerns about deterioration of the environment.