Catawba Biogas, a leading operator of renewable energy facilities, will locate a new poultry waste to natural gas conversion plant in Anson County, North Carolina.

According to Anson Economic Development Partnership, the company plans to invest at least $15 million in state-of-the-art biogas technology, and is expected to break ground later this year on a site near the Pee Dee Electric gas turbine "peaking" plant east of Lilesville, North Carolina.

Located in the heart of the "Broiler Belt," Anson County is home to more than 940 poultry houses and produces 5.5 million birds annually, local officials said. Traditionally, farmers have applied poultry waste to their fields as fertilizer, but as the number of poultry houses has increased and land devoted to row crop production has peaked, poultry growers are finding themselves with more waste than they can efficiently dispose of in an environmentally sustainable way.

Catawba Biogas contracts with poultry growers to manage their waste, offering a long-term sustainable solution for them while creating a renewable source of natural gas and high quality organic fertilizer.

Anson County and the Anson Economic Development Partnership assisted the project through site identification, selection and general support services. The company will not receive any local financial incentives for locating their facility in the county.

“We are pleased to collaborate with and support an innovative renewable energy company like Catawba Biogas," said John B. Marek, Executive Director of AnsonEDP. "The Lilesville plant is the latest example of how the circular economy approach can benefit rural agricultural areas both economically and environmentally. By converting waste into fuel and stable organic fertilizer, the plant will help increase North Carolina's renewable energy capacity while protecting our local waterways."