Dubai Municipality plans to set up the largest plant in the Middle East to convert solid waste into energy at a cost of Dh2 billion ($544 million), a report said.

The move falls in line with the national agenda to reduce the landfill by 75 percent by 2021, in addition to protecting the environment from methane gas emitted by the landfill, added WAM, the Emirates official news agency.

The plant, to be built in Warsan district 2, will take three years to complete, Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director-General of Dubai Municipality was quoted as saying in the report.

It will be operational in the second quarter of 2020 during which it will receive 2,000 metric tonnes of municipal solid waste per day in the first phase to produce 60 megawatts, he added.

Essa Al Maidoor, deputy-director of Dubai Municipality, said the waste incineration project is the first of the four projects to produce green energy.

Dubai Municipality aims to produce 7 per cent of Dubai's total energy from clean energy sources by 2020, he added.