Southern Company received its first fuel load delivery November 1 at the Nacogdoches (Texas) Generating Facility owned by its subsidiary Southern Power. The plant is expected to be the largest biomass facility in the U.S. as it fulfills a 20-year contract to provide electric capacity to Austin Energy.
Prime Acres Management Inc. won the right to deliver the first fuel load after being the highest bidder in an online supplier charity auction. The winning bid of $10,500 will be matched by Southern Company and donated to the Nacogdoches Technical Training Center.
In October 2009, Southern Company purchased the project from American Renewables. The project has been under construction since November 2009 and will be operational in mid 2012. Once the facility is fully operational, it will produce 100 MW of electricity and use 1.1 million tons of wood waste per year. The vast majority of the wood is expected to come from within a 75 mile radius of the plant.