On being built, the plant will employ about 60 people from Arkansas at salaries at or above $35,000.
“We’re building a 20 megawatt CHP plant, that’s combined heat and power. And we’re producing 370,000 tons of wood pellets that are made out of southern yellow pine,” Phoenix Renewable Energy Director of Development Stephen Walker said.
Walker explained, “In Europe, the European Union, a lot of the utilities over there burn the wood pellets in place of coal. In essence, they understand that it is carbon neutral.”
Camden Mayor Chris Claybreaker said “I’ve been trying to get some additional traffic on the river since 1994. And this is the first real big opportunity that we’ve had since Cross Oil started using the river some ten years ago.”
James Lee Sillman, Executive Director of Camden Economic Development said “This is big not only for Camden and Arkansas, but for the United States. It’s going to help us wean ourselves off of foreign oil and make us more energy independent.”
