Southern Company Launches Giant Wood Waste Biomass Facility

Allan Gerlat, News Editor

July 20, 2012

1 Min Read
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Energy firm Southern Co. has launched what it is calling the largest biomass facility in the United States, a 100-megawatt unit near Sacul, Texas.

The Atlanta-based power company said in a news release that the Nacogdoches Generating Facility, located on 65 acres in northeast Texas, will be fueled by non-merchantable wood waste. It will create a combination of wood-based biomass fuels from primarily saw mill or other wood mill production waste, forest waste, pre-commercial thinnings of cultivated trees, and diseased and other non-commercial tree species. The facility also could use urban wood waste, tree limbs and branches produced by storms and other non-commercial logging-derived biomass.

Southern said the facility represents an investment of about $500 million. It creates 40 permanent jobs.

The Texas power company Austin Energy is receiving energy from the plant through a 20-year purchase agreement.

About the Author

Allan Gerlat

News Editor, Waste360

Allan Gerlat joined the Waste360 staff in September 2011 as news editor. He was the editor of Waste & Recycling News for the first 16 years of its history, and under his guidance the publication won 27 national and regional awards.

Before Waste & Recycling News, Allan worked at another Crain Communications publication, Rubber & Plastics News, which covers rubber product manufacturing. He began with the publication as associate editor and eventually became managing editor, a position he held for nine years.

Allan is a graduate of Ohio University, where he earned a BS in journalism. He is based in Sagamore Hills, in northeast Ohio.

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