An international energy corporation’s plan to build a wood pellet mill in Fairfield County suffered what might be a final blow to the fading project after months of opposition from area neighbors.
A South Carolina business group bought the land where Abengoa Inc. had sought to locate the pellet mill, according to a local property owner involved in the deal and Fairfield County real estate records. Those following the Abengoa proposal said the land sale likely stops any chance the project will be built in the White Oak community between Columbia and Charlotte.
Tom Patrick, an opponent who is among those who helped buy the land, said the new ownership group may sell the property near White Oak for another industrial use, but a pellet mill was not the right type of business for the area. Neighbors had cited truck traffic, noise and pollution as reasons the 70-job mill should not locate in their community. “Abengoa may or may not have worked this out,’’ Patrick said. “At least now, we control the site and we can have some sort of influence on what goes there.’’
Patrick, who said he lives near the site, declined to disclose the sales price, the acreage or who else was involved in the transaction. County records provided to The State newspaper show that a company called KWOB LLC acquired the land from a local family last week for $480,000. The main site Abengoa at one time sought to purchase was on about 15 acres near U.S. 321.
Abengoa, a Spanish company that also provides solar and other energy services, did not respond to questions from The State about the transaction or the company’s future plans in South Carolina. The company was seeking to establish the pellet mill under a subsidiary known as AEC Pellet 1 USA.
From The State: https://www.thestate.com/news/local/article67631587.html