Although it’s been nine months since GrowGreen Power announced its plans to locate a $250 million facility in Anson County, ground has not yet been broken on the site. However, County Manager Lawrence Gatewood says the project is still a go.
In July 2011, Sean Lehman, director of communications for GrowGreen Power, said that he expected building to start at the site, on Highway 52 North just outside Wadesboro, by the end of the year, with the facility ready to be open and operational by the end of 2012. That timeline has been modified, Gatewood said, but could not give an updated timeline. Lehman did not return calls for comment by press time.
“There has been no construction yet,” Gatewood said. “They are still in the process of planning and getting permits and everything. They are still very much committed to locating in Anson County.”
In July, Lehman said the project will include a hydroponic greenhouse and a solar thermal / biomass power plant. The site will start out with a 50-acre greenhouse and expand to 100 acres at a later date, he added. The biomass plant will burn wood waste as a source of renewable energy, he explained.
And what exactly is a hydroponic greenhouse? “The roots of the produce are suspended in water,” Lehman said. “It is not soil-based produce. You can grow up to 30 times more produce in a hydroponic greenhouse as opposed to soil-based. We’ll also be capturing CO2 from the biomass plant and integrating that into the produce.”
Gatewood said that more information on the project would likely be released this summer.
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