ASA, an Austrian subsidiary of FCC, has inaugurated a facility for burning municipal and non-hazardous industrial waste to generate electricity in Zistersdorf, a town located about 50 km north of Vienna.

The facility is expected to produce 600 million euro in revenues over its 30-year lifetime. It cost 96 million euro, financed with a syndicated loan lead-managed by Bank Austria Creditanstal.

Built on a 10-hectare site owned by FCC, the plant can process 130,000 tonnes of municipal, commercial and non-hazardous industrial waste per year (70% of which will arrive by rail) to generate electricity.

The plant uses Von Roll Innova furnace technology. Its rated power generation capacity is 14.5 MW net, and it can export up to 99,450 MWh of power to the grid each year, enough to supply a town with over 30,000 homes. Between the first fire in late March and the end of May, the plant burned over 20,000 tonnes of waste.

The plant was built on a turnkey basis by Von Roll Innova, which subcontracted construction to FCC subsidiary Alpine Mayreder. Project supervision was entrusted to engineering firm Inerta, an ASA subsidiary. Construction began in January 2007.

ASA has already contracted the plant's entire waste incineration capacity with third parties and some of its own subsidiaries whose waste is required by law to be incinerated.

As a result of this operation, ASA is now a leader in Austria's incineration industry. In the UK, FCC subsidiary WRG is the leading energy-from-waste company. Since it was acquired by FCC, ASA has pursued a policy of expansion into neighbouring countries.