BEIJING -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced on Tuesday that it will support clean municipal waste-to-energy (WTE) projects with advanced technology in small and medium-sized cities in China.

The ADB on Tuesday signed agreements with 10 commercial banks to support Dynagreen Environmental Protection Group (Dynagreen) in the projects. It also signed a $100 million onshore local currency complementary loan agreement.

In addition, ADB is providing a technical assistance grant of up to $500,000 to enhance Dynagreen's corporate governance system.

"The agreement signed today will improve solid waste management in China's smaller cities, and also increase energy generation from renewable sources to help diversify the country's energy mix," said Diwakar Gupta, ADB's Vice-President for Private Sector and Cofinancing Operations.

The financing package will help the development of WTE projects based on public-private partnerships (PPP) with smaller municipal governments, reducing greenhouse gas emissions as well as soil and groundwater contamination, said the ADB.

The project includes the construction of at least nine technically efficient and environmentally sustainable WTE plants generating around 610 gigawatt-hours of electricity a year by 2018 using clean technologies, according to the ADB.