The investment in numbers
3-5-Minute read
In September 2025, Enwave Energy Corporation broke ground on a new energy-from-waste processing plant, based in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. The project, expected to cost up to $180 million to construct, expands upon a previous waste processing facility and will help to generate more energy across the province, while diverting black cart waste from landfills.
The expansion project is primarily supported by investment from the Canada Infrastructure Bank, an impact investor that partners with the public and private sectors to finance infrastructure projects across Canada. Similar to infrastructure banks across the globe, the CIB provides repayable loans with favourable terms that attract private capital into much-needed infrastructure projects. By investing alongside the private sector and institutional lenders, this financing tool reduces capital cost pressures on Canadian taxpayers.
The societal costs of waste management.
The United Nations Environmental Programme projects that municipal solid waste generation is set to grow from 2.1 billion tonnes in 2023 to 3.8 billion tonnes by 2050, an 70% increase. According to its model, adjusting for poor waste disposal practices as well as the hidden costs of pollution, health impacts and climate change— the cost of waste management could grow over to over USD$361 billion.
Improper waste management practices could cost global economies, including Canada, millions and cause unmeasurable societal impact. Promoting sustainable waste solutions such as Enwave’s new processing plant, will be paramount to diverting waste from landfill and supporting a cost-effective, reliable secure source of energy for residents.
The existing energy plant on Prince Edward Island is reaching end-of-life after providing energy to Charlottetown through a connected network for almost 30 years. Converting solid waste and biomass to energy, it was imperative that this plant was replaced while implementing contemporary sustainable waste solutions.
Finding sustainable solutions to PEI waste
Financed by the CIB, the City of Charlottetown’s new processing facility takes an innovative approach to energy-from-waste. The plant utilises Black Cart Waste, a combination of residual, non-recyclable waste for power; waste such as compost, recyclables and other special disposal is sorted out before turbines or small hot water systems transfer the waste into energy, fuelling buildings across the city.
This method reduces the need for traditional fossil fuel-based methods for heat and electricity generation on the island. The CIB’s loan enables a project, which will divert up to 49,000 tonnes of solid waste and methane emissions from landfill, all while producing heat for customers.
How CIB is addressing market failures
The $600M loan from the CIB has enabled Enwave, which is owned by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan & IFM Investors.to carry out this project and others across its portfolio, including wastewater heat recovery and geo-exchange technology in Ontario; and this waste-to-energy technology in PEI. These projects demonstrate the importance of crowding in private and institutional capital to advance sustainable infrastructure projects.
In his research on infrastructure banks around the world, Dr. Sebastien Betermier, Associate Professor of Finance at the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University, explored how public impact projects with strong social value tend to struggle to attract private investment. High upfront costs, long payback periods and unpriced externalities result in a “catch-22,” where mutually beneficial investment is possible, but the private and public sectors alone are unable to address the investment gap. This results in a market failure, where barriers to investment inhibit beneficial projects.
This new waste processing plant, and other renewable energy projects face similar challenges in fundraising including high upfront costs, long construction periods, uncertain timelines or costs. Infrastructure banks such as the CIB can provide early capital or subordinated financing during development and construction of a waste processing plant, absorbing risks before revenues begin. By de-risking this project and providing Enwave with the capital to begin construction to replace the previous plant, CIB moved this project forward. Infrastructure banks can help absorb some of the risk associated investing in new technologies, helping private and institutional investors feel more secure in funding these projects.
Looking forward
The Enwave energy-from-waste facility in PEI illustrates how infrastructure banks such as the CIB can transform high-cost projects with societal value into attractive investment opportunities for private and institutional capital.
Through this project and others across its portfolio, the CIB is advancing much-needed infrastructure by providing flexible loans and crowding in private capital, which can minimize the reliance on grants to advance infrastructure projects.
“The CIB is proud to be a part of this project given the important role it will play in modernizing the city’s district energy system, ensuring affordable and clean energy supply to more than 145 connected buildings in the Charlottetown core,” said Ehren Cory, CEO, Canada Infrastructure Bank.
Learn more about the CIB and other infrastructure banks, and their policy impact here.