Underwear factory coverted to 17MW biomass plant

Henry County, Va.-based Multitrade Biomass Holdings said it plans to build a $21.5 million biomass facility inside an abandoned underwear factory in Rabun Gap, Ga.

The former Fruit of the Loom factory is expected to be converted into a 17 megawatt plant producing energy from local forestry industry waste for Green Power EMC, a nonprofit group of 42 electricity corporations. Tucker, Ga.-based Green Power plans to derive renewable energy from sources such as biomass, solar, wind and hydro and sell it to customers of electricity co-ops.

The plant is expected to create 95 jobs and power 10,000 homes. It's expected to be operational in August 2009.

Leaf Clean Energy (LSE: LEAF.L) invested $21.5 million in Multitrade Rabun Gap, which was formed with the sole purpose of building the plant. The facility expects to use woody waste as the primary fuel in a conventional boiler to generate steam to power a steam-turbine electric generator.

The boiler is among several pieces of equipment leftover from the Fruit of the Loom factory. The boiler was previously used to supply steam and electricity to manufacture underwear.

Multitrade Biomass Holdings was formed in December 2006 to develop renewable wood-waste fired power plants in the Southern and Mid-Atlantic states. Its predecessor company, Multitrade Group, developed an 80-megawatt wood fueled power plants in central Virginia.