Urban Ski Slope to Raise Profile of Europe's Waste-to-Energy Drive
The Amager Bakke incinerator project under construction in Copenhagen, Denmark, is the flashiest example of Europe's effort to deploy waste-to-energy technology to cut carbon emissions.
The Amager Bakke incinerator, now under construction, will contribute to Copenhagen's ambitious goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2025. When finished in 2017, it will produce heat for 160,000 households and electricity for 62,500 residences. It is perhaps the flashiest example yet of Europe's effort to deploy cutting-edge waste-to-energy technology in the effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions. While some critics in Europe's green movement question the environmental benefits, and cost also can be an obstacle, cities like Copenhagen are convinced that producing megawatts is better than piling trash in landfills. (See related story: "On Mount Everest, Seeking Biogas Energy in a Mountain of Waste.")
The move toward waste-to-energy (WTE) plants was kick-started in 1999, with a European Union directive
