Anson County, North Carolina

been done with other types of waste. There’s a facility in Charlotte that takes household waste and does the same thing with it, and there’s a facility a couple hundred miles from here that does that with pig waste. Chicken waste has a high ammonia content and it tends to kill the microbes that do the conversion of the waste to natural gas. This company has a proprietary technology that extracts the ammonia on the front end; that ammonia is captured, and it becomes a pure organic fertilizer which can be transported. They have contracts in California for that fertilizer; they’re going to be putting it on a rail car and shipping it across country. The remainder is natural gas, and the byproduct of it all is a crumbly substance that’s sold as a soil additive. So, essentially, it’s a 100 percent environmentally-friendly process. 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.” The company plans to invest at least $15 million in state-of-the-art biogas technology on a site near the Pee Dee Electric gas turbine “peaking” plant east of Lilesville. Going forward, Anson County has a lot going for it: a prime location, a skilled workforce, available land, and a business-friendly administration all combine to make this once sleepy area the new hot growth corridor in the Charlotte, North Carolina region – a place where opportunity awaits. PREFERRED VENDOR n Anderson Real Estate www.andersonrealestate.org