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Northam announces $75.7m investment in Southampton County

Posted at 11:18 AM, Dec 21, 2018
and last updated 2018-12-21 11:18:16-05

SOUTHAMPTON Co., Va. – Governor Ralph Northam announced that a global energy company specializing in sustainable wood biomass, Enviva Partners, LP, will invest at least $75.7 million to expand its operation in Southampton, Virginia.

The money will go towards an expansion of the existing facility, which will allow it to increase wood pellet production by a third for a total of 750,000 metric tons per year.

In addition, the expansion will boost the company’s usage of fiber and raw materials from Virginia forests.

“Enviva Partners, LP plays a valuable role in the economic landscape of Southampton County, and this multi-million-dollar investment will stimulate industry growth throughout the Commonwealth,” Northam said in a statement. “By processing sustainably-sourced pine at its expanded facility in Southampton, Enviva will open up new markets for Virginia’s forest products sector, one of the Commonwealth’s top private industries, and increase its own wood pellet production by a third.”

Enviva operates six manufacturing plants across the southeast United States, and is the world’s largest producer of wood pellets at more than three million metric tons of pellets per year.

Wood pellets produced at Enviva’s Southampton facility are exported through the company’s deep-water marine terminal in Chesapeake.