RSS Feed
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Fuel pellet plant looks at Jackson A new industry, which would employ up to 113 people, is considering locating near Jackson. The city council has agreed to offer up to $1 million of site preparation services for New Gas Concepts (NGC), Inc. According to Mayor Richard Long, NGC is considering building a plant to produce wood pellets that would be shipped overseas to be used as fuel by European industries. The company already owns Dixie Pellets, LLC, in Selma. The pellets combine wood by-products with chemicals to produce a long-burning fuels, similar to charcoal briquettes. The pellets will barged down the Alabama River to the Port of Mobile and exported to European Union electrical utilities and feedstock for power generation. The plan is to build a plant in Jackson, which will utilize the Tombigee River for transporting the pellets produced there to the Port of Mobile. Long said future business opportunities between Dixie Pellets and Boise, as well as other companies in the area that produce wood products, may be a possibility once the plant is up and running. According to NGC's Web site, because Dixie Pellets will utilize renewable wood sources, gasification technology and will minimize the carbon emissions in transportation, its pellets qualify as a "green" energy source in the European Union. Favorable incentives for green power sources make the pellets valuable to buyers in the European Union. Long said if the project gets final approval, NGC has agreed to pay back the $1 million in incentives over a 20-year period. "This is a major industry that will be locating to Jackson and providing up to 113 jobs for Clarke County citizens," he said. "I would like to thank Debra Bolen and all those on the Industrial Development Board (IDB) who have worked with us on this project."
The mayor added that the city is currently in the process of pursuing grant monies to help pay for the $1 million incentives package. "Regardless of whether we acquire any grant money for this project, we will still provide the same amount of incentives and site preparation work," he said.
|
for larger version       |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
