**3. Economics of WtE**

The most apparent barrier for the implementation of WtE technologies is capital cost, specifically the upfront expense of building and installing the energy generation system. While not enabling a detailed view of project economics, an assessment of capital costs offers simple and clear information which can be used to evaluate the status of different commercial technologies. **Figure 9** shows estimates of capital cost for a range of WtE power generation technologies. Capital costs are low for mature technologies such as cocombustion and anaerobic digestion integrated with ICE or gas turbine (GT). For early-stage technologies, the capital costs are extremely uncertain, and as such many were not included in the analysis. Pyrolysis, plasma arc gasification, and refused-derived fuel (RDF) direct combustion, for

**Figure 9.** *Capital cost (in \$/kW) for selected WtE power generation technologies [91–95].*

example, have higher capital costs due to technical hurdles and novelty status. As for integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC), the costs vary widely as the process is still not established with significant cost reductions expected. The size of cost decline, however, is likely to be very dependent on geographical location and in line to the support given by global policy-makers and national frameworks regarding each technology [91].
