Ring30

General Information

Ring30 is not an operator with a running plant. It is the project vehicle for a Waste-to-Energy plant that SachsenEnergie AG wants to build in Dresden, the capital of Saxony. The legal entity is Ring30 GmbH, a limited company with its registered office at Friedrich-List-Platz 2, 01069 Dresden, the headquarters of SachsenEnergie.

It is entered in the Dresden commercial register under HRB 42158 with a share capital of EUR 25,000. The company was registered on 24 November 2021 as a shelf company (LK Fünfhundertfünfundzwanzigste Vermögensverwaltungs GmbH), renamed SachsenEnergie Beta GmbH in January 2022 and became RING30 GmbH on 25 April 2023, which the City of Dresden’s participation report treats as the founding in April 2023.

The registered business purpose is the planning, construction and operation of a CHP plant recovering energy from untreated and treated waste including sewage sludge, the sourcing, trading and processing of fuels and recyclables, and the supply of energy and heat to third parties.

The project name stands for “Ring” as in circular economy (Kreislaufwirtschaft) and “30” for the target commissioning year 2030. Managing directors listed in register databases are Lars Höhne (since April 2023) and Lars Kaulfuß (March 2025 to May 2026); Mathias Käubler, SachsenEnergie’s project manager for Ring30, holds joint power of attorney. Register data published by openregister.de record a change of name to SachsenRecycling GmbH on 25 May 2026. The LinkedIn profile of Lars Höhne and the Dun & Bradstreet directory also carry the new name. The company has no own website, SachsenEnergie runs a project page with FAQs. No employee number is published for Ring30 GmbH.

Ownership

According to the Investment Report 2023 of the City of Dresden, Ring30 is a 100 per cent subsidiary of SachsenEnergie AG. SachsenEnergie, formed in 2021 from the merger of Drewag and Enso, is itself municipally owned: in 2023 Energieverbund Dresden GmbH, a holding of the city’s Technische Werke Dresden GmbH, held 82.39 per cent, the Kommunale Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH an der Enso (KBO) of the East Saxon municipalities held 16.47 per cent, and municipal single shareholders 1.14 per cent. Ring30 GmbH has a profit-and-loss transfer agreement with SachsenEnergie AG. In 2023 its loss was absorbed by the parent together with those of other subsidiaries.

Trade press reported in June 2025 that Ring30 was to be a joint operating company of SachsenEnergie and Stadtreinigung Dresden GmbH (SRD), the city’s waste collector. The register sources consulted show SachsenEnergie as sole shareholder. SRD belongs 100 per cent to Technische Werke Dresden since 1 July 2020, when the city bought back the 49 per cent stake that Veolia had held since 2007 (originally sold to Cleanaway in 2004). In September 2025 the mayor was reported to be seeking a private partner for up to 49 per cent of SRD to ease the finances of Technische Werke Dresden. Councillors warned that this could jeopardise the cooperation with SachsenEnergie on the Hammerweg plant. No decision had been reported by October 2026.

Facilities and Operations

The plant, formally “Thermische Abfallbehandlungsanlage Ring30” (TAB Ring30), is to be built at Hammerweg 23, 01127 Dresden, in the Pieschen district (Albertstadt/Trachenberge area). This is the site of the biological-mechanical waste treatment plant (BMA) that Stadtreinigung Dresden commissioned in 2001 with 85,000 t/a, expanded to 105,000 t/a in 2006 and took out of operation on 7 March 2021. Since then the adjacent storage hall, permitted in January 2020 for transshipment of up to 105,000 t/a, has served as a transfer station from which all Dresden residual waste goes to treatment plants in other federal states, about 4,000 truckloads a year over an average of 150 km. The partial permit application also covers the later conversion of the existing transshipment hall for interim storage of waste fractions.

The design has evolved. In the February 2024 presentation to the district councils SachsenEnergie described a pre-treatment plant for 75,000–110,000 t/a of residual waste and a thermal line for 120,000 t/a of refuse-derived fuel with a design calorific value of 13 MJ/kg, about 42 MW of heat and about 5 MW of electricity. The current project page gives a regular throughput of 145,000 t/a and a technical maximum of about 213,000 t/a that is used in the permit documents for the worst-case operating scenario.

The EPC tender published on TED on 25 June 2026 (reference 121/2026, after a first notice of 8 June 2026) describes a high-efficiency EBS CHP plant for municipal waste and substitute fuels of approximately 54 MWth supplying the district heating network. The city’s heat plan of September 2025 lists a single-line, preferably air-cooled grate furnace with flexible district heat extraction of about 40 MW and a fuel utilisation above 70 per cent. SachsenEnergie cites up to 85 per cent. Flue gas cleaning to the 17th BImSchV, continuous emission monitoring, enclosed waste reception under negative pressure, metal recovery from the bottom ash and use of the remaining slag as construction material are part of the concept. CO2 capture is considered in the design, without storage on site.

Feedstock is residual household and bulky waste from Dresden, about 75,000–81,000 t/a after separate collection, plus non-recyclable commercial waste and sorting residues from Dresden and the surrounding districts. SachsenEnergie argues that Saxony lacks capacity: in 2024 about 1.27 million tonnes of Saxon waste went to thermal treatment, of which at least 915,000 t outside the state, and the only existing plant in Saxony is T.A. Lauta. From 2030 Ring30 is to cover about 16 per cent of Dresden’s district heat supply, replacing natural gas. No waste or energy figures exist, because the plant has not been built.

Financial Performance

Ring30 GmbH publishes no revenue, result or employee figures of its own. The company is a project vehicle whose losses are absorbed by SachsenEnergie AG under the profit-and-loss transfer agreement. Its annual accounts for 2021 and 2022 are filed with the Bundesanzeiger. The investment in the plant is put at over EUR 200 million, to be financed without public subsidies. SachsenEnergie states that thermal treatment accounts for about 30 per cent of the Dresden waste fee, that municipal and commercial waste are accounted for separately under public price law, and that the volume risk for commercial capacity sits with the plant operator rather than the fee payers. The Saxon economics ministry and the Greens in the city council doubt the commercial waste supply, pointing out that the Saxon waste management plan projects falling residual waste volumes.

2026: Permit Procedure Stalls on Objections

The Landesdirektion Sachsen announced the project on 7 May 2026. The application documents were on public display from 27 March to 27 April 2026 and again from 15 May to 15 June 2026, with online display until 15 August 2026. Objections could be filed until 15 July 2026. On 2 July 2026 the Greens demanded that the mayor, as representative of SachsenEnergie’s majority shareholder, halt the plans. On 30 July 2026 the authority postponed the hearing scheduled for 1 and 2 September 2026 because of the large number of objections. A new date had not been published by October 2026.

In parallel SachsenEnergie ran the EPC tender for the EBS CHP plant (TED notices of 8 and 25 June 2026, submission deadline 17 July 2026). In September 2026 the company said independent market analyses showed the plant would run at full load and confirmed the design point of about 145,000 t/a, calling the 213,000 t/a in the permit file a theoretical operating mode. The supervisory board was to discuss the project and the city council is to take the final decision.

2025: Application Filed

SachsenEnergie filed the application for a partial permit under sections 4 and 8 BImSchG with the Landesdirektion Sachsen on 1 July 2025. The boiler plant is to be permitted separately. In May 2025 project manager Mathias Käubler put the investment at over EUR 200 million, a building permit at the end of 2026 and commissioning after about three years of construction, in 2030. The city’s heat plan of September 2025 includes Ring30 with about 40 MW of district heat from 2030. In September 2025 the planned partial sale of Stadtreinigung Dresden put a question mark over the waste partnership.

2023–2024: Project Company and Public Presentation

Ring30 GmbH received its name on 25 April 2023. SachsenEnergie presented the project to the district councils of Klotzsche and Pieschen on 5 and 6 February 2024 and to a critical public meeting on 13 May 2024, at which an investment of about EUR 200 million and realisation by 2030 were named. The permit application, originally planned for the end of 2024, slipped to mid-2025.

Outlook and Projects

The single project is the construction of TAB Ring30 at Hammerweg with a design throughput of 145,000 t/a, approximately 54 MWth, about 40 MW of district heat and about 5 MW of electricity, at an investment of over EUR 200 million.

SachsenEnergie expects the permit at the end of 2026 and commercial operation in 2030. The permit notice names 2029. Open points are the postponed hearing, the city council decision, the EPC award and the future ownership of Stadtreinigung Dresden. A similar plant is planned by Eins Energie in Chemnitz, and the Saxon ministry has stated that Dresden, Chemnitz and Lauta together would exceed the state’s needs.