Brussels customers pay €10 million extra for waste incinerator

Residents in the Brussels-Capital Region will be paying an extra €10 million a year over the next 10 years via their electricity bills to cover the cost of a subsidy for the Brussels incinerator, power regulator Brugel has said.

With its tall chimney and plume of smoke, the incinerator is a familiar site on the skyline of northern Brussels, on the canal at Van Praet just across from the royal palace in Laken.

Granting the Bruxelles Propreté incinerator, which burns combustible waste to produce electricity, green energy certificates was part of the Brussels government’s accord in 2014. The decision was confirmed last year in a new ruling on green energy, and consumers have been paying a portion of the subsidy since February, said Brugel.

However, according to the regulator, the incinerator is too old and dirty to qualify for green energy certificates, which can be sold on to other players in the energy market. In particular, the incinerator continues to receive certificates while fewer are now being granted to newer, cleaner producers such as windmills and solar panels.

Opposition party Groen described the system as “a covert tax increase” and called on the government to build a bio-methane plant instead of subsidising the outdated incinerator. The system of green energy certificates was intended to provide support to new, renewable forms of energy production, said member of the Brussels parliament Annemie Maes.

Photo courtesy Renouvelle.be