Retrofit and Maintenance of Waste Incineration Plants in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

As the majority of the current waste incineration plants in Germany, Austria and Switzerland was built before 1990 most of the plants or their components, despite of continuous maintenance, are outdated. Retrofit can improve the plant’s efficiency und leads to a production of more energy without additional combustibles or emissions.
The market for retrofit in Germany and Switzerland will be driven especially by efforts to improve plant’s efficiency. In Austria on the other hand, retrofit competes with preventive maintenance, because most of the plants were built only a few years ago. The market volume for retrofit will not significantly increase until the end of this decade when plant operators strive to improve the plant’s efficiency due to the increasing competition. Compared to other countries, Switzerland’s market volume is at a relatively low level. The biggest market volume is expected to be in 2019 with only 80 million Euro, in spite of a high number of plants. The peak in the reference scenario of Austria is expected to be in 2014, almost completely due to the retrofit of one major plant. Given the big number of plants in Germany, the market volume will be much higher: From 2012 to 2020 the predicted annual investments range from 40 to 200 million Euro. The market volume for retrofit is influenced by the developments of the waste management industry, legal requirements as well as by the number and age of the plants and can therefore fluctuate annually.