Press Releases

Groundbreaking for Wood Pellet Plant at Camden Set for Aug. 13
By Arkansas Business Staff

Phoenix Renewable Energy LLC of Hot Springs and the city of Camden will break ground Thursday on a $110 million wood pellet plant.

The Camden plant, which was first announced in February, is expected to hire about 40 workers and employ 30 truck drivers eventually. The wood pellet jobs are expected to pay around $15 an hour on average. Read more....

Wood Pellets Catch Fire as Renewable Energy Source
By Russell Gold

Some of the fastest growing sources of renewable energy in the world are the wind, the sun -- and the lowly wood pellet. European utilities are snapping up the small combustible pellets to burn alongside coal in existing power plants. As a global marketplace emerges to feed their growing appetite for pellets, the Southeastern U.S. is becoming a major exporter, with pellet factories sprouting in Florida, Alabama and Arkansas. Read more....

Wood-pellet plant locating in Camden
By David Smith

Phoenix Renewable Energy of Hot Springs plans to build a $110 million plant in Camden to produce wood pellets for heating and power generation, the firm's chief executive officer said Thursday. Read more....

Plans Announced For Arkansas Wood Pellet Plant
AER Staff, Friday 20 February 2009 - 00:00:00

Phoenix Renewable Energy of Hot Springs, Ark., has announced it will build a $110 million wood pellet manufacturing plant in Camden, Ark. Read more...

Wood Pellets
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Northwest Edition
Posted on Thursday, March 26, 2009

WOOD PELLETS? What are wood pellets? We've seen rabbit pellets. And owl pellets come out the other end. (The poor critters have to yak up what they can't digest. Ask us about the time we were walking in the woods when . . . never mind.) And just the other day we stopped the 13-year-old of the house from taking aim at a pet squirrel in the back yard with his, yes, pellet gun.
But wood pellets? Read more....

CAMDEN LANDS WOOD PELLET MAKER
TalkBusiness.net

Camden will be the location for a $110 million wood pellet producer, Phoenix Renewable Energy. Wood pellets, which are made from sawdust and wood chips, are a growing form of alternative energy in the northeast and overseas. The Camden plant is expected to hire about 40 workers and employ 30 truck drivers eventually. Read more...

Company's impact on Ouachita County economy could be huge
Publication: Camden News; Date:2009 Feb 22; Section:Main
By DONNA COLLINS
For the Sunday News

CAMDEN - A signifi cant impact on the Ouachita County economy is expected to result from a Hot Springs company's decision to build two renewable energy plants in Camden. How much of an economic impact will Phoenix Renewable Energy's plans have on Camden?

"The construction is a $110 million project," Mayor Chris Claybaker said, explaining that although some of that estimated $110 million will be used to purchase some pretty pricey equipment from places other than Camden, Phoenix has pledged to use local and area contractors and suppliers on the construction and that's good news for Camden businesses. Phoenix Renewable Energy announced Wednesday that a former International Paper Co. site in Camden would be the home of the company's newest biomass-fuel power plant and a manufacturing plant that will produce wood pellets. The company will use slash from timber harvesting sites, waste products from mill sites and organic yard and landscape waste from the community to generate steam power to operate the pellet production plant. Phoenix will get about $25,000 from Ouachita Partnership For Economic Development for the 40 new jobs the plants will create.

The $25,000 will be in the form of a draw down account that Phoenix can use with local businesses and suppliers.

"Forty jobs are tremendous," Claybaker said. He said most of the jobs lost when International Paper left Camden and jobs lost when General Dynamics left have been replaced with defense industry jobs located in Highland Industrial Park. "What people may have forgotten are the pulpwood haulers and timber workers who hauled to saw mills now closed, who have remained without IP, who have continued to try to make a living, who haven't been retrained. It's these people who will also feel the benefits of this deal," Claybaker said.

"That's the beauty of this," he said when asked about how the community will benefit. Claybaker said the city would certainly do well through increased sales tax revenues and service businesses should also do well, but "the best benefit is the hope it brings," the mayor said. "Phoenix could be the first. This gives Camden credibility. Others who have looked at us before will take a second look and with the partnerships we have grown we'll be ready," he said.

OPED is providing Camden Area Industrial Development Corporation with $60,000 to improve infrastructure at the site. CAIDC owns the old IP property.

"This could not have happened without the cooperation and hard work of Norm MacNeill at OPED and James Lee Silliman at CAIDC," Claybaker said about the past six to eight months he, MacNeill and Silliman have been working with Phoenix. Silliman is executive director of CAIDC and Mac-Neill is executive director of OPED.

"We each brought our own areas of expertise to the table," Claybaker said, adding that Silliman's knowledge of the site's assets were key to negotiations. Claybaker explained that Steve Walker, director of development for Phoenix, and the Camden team were discussing how much water the biomass-fueled power plant would need and if the city's water and sewer utility could accommodate Phoenix's need when Silliman pointed out the existence of the former IP system that could provide an alternative water source for Phoenix - the Ouachita River. "It's been a real team effort," Silliman told the Sunday News. "It's been a whirlwind of activities and there is still a ways to go, but we'll persevere." Silliman praised the partnership of CAIDC, OPED and the city. Silliman said CAIDC is working on a lease agreement with Phoenix and that the next step would be the start of construction. He predicted a summer start date for construction. "The positive impact, first with construction jobs, and later with operation, is obvious," Silliman said, adding that the success of the project could mean the most to area's currently depressed timber industry. "It is exciting and the project creates excitement about the possibilities of the future," Silliman said. The possible inclusion of river resources is especially sweet for Claybaker and even sweeter is the possibility of having the Port of Camden operational. Walker said Wednesday that Phoenix hopes to be able to ship the wood pellets produced in Camden to New Orleans and then to Europe where the company has existing contracts for the pellets that are used as heating fuel. A working public port has long been a dream of Claybaker's who is chairman of the Camden Port Authority and president of the Ouachita River Valley Association. Claybaker's annual trip to Washington to meet with law makers about the Ouachita River and its importance to South Arkansas and northern Louisiana is coming up in March and he said he'll be more than happy to share the community's economic development news.

"This will generate new interest," he said, repeating an earlier comment about generating new economic development interest in the area.

The mayor said he plans to show others that the community has worked hard for such an opportunity and that this is the right opportunity to take Camden in to the future.