The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has issued a loan of €12.7mn to finance a waste-to-energy facility in Kazakhstan.

The Clean Technology Fund, a vehicle established to finance renewables projects in developing countries, is also providing a loan of US$8mn.

The facility will be located in Aktau, in the west of the country, and will comprise a new integrated mechanical-biological treatment plant and a new sanitary landfill. It is hoped that this will enable the city to recycle waste and produce electricity from the waste. The project will also receive a state grant to enable completion.

Janet Heckman, the EBRD’s Kazakhstan director, says: “Kazakhstan wants to start thinking green. The country inherited crumbling, inefficient Soviet-built infrastructure, and it will take a big effort to modernise it. However projects like these – where a city in the oil-rich Mangystau region is striving to produce energy from waste and builds modern, innovative facilities – are a sign that the dream of a green economy is taking hold in the regions, not just in the capital.”