Waste-to-energy company Empower is close to signing agreements worth a combined EGP 350 mn with three unnamed sugar beet processing companies to turn beet waste into energy and organic fertilizer, Chairman Hatem El Gamal told the local press. The company will buy land from the processors for its operations and plans to begin work by December. The Export Development Bank, Bank of Alexandria, and QNB have agreed to finance the facilities. Empower plans to sell the electricity under the independent power producer (IPP) framework, which allows private companies to directly sell power to consumers while paying the state a fee to use the national grid for transmission.