The Procter & Gamble Company and Constellation, a subsidiary of Exelon Corporation, gathered with city, county and state officials today to celebrate the development of an up to 50-megawatt biomass plant that will help run one of P&G’s largest U.S. manufacturing facilities. Scheduled to begin commercial operation in June 2017, the plant will provide 100 percent of the steam, and up to 60-70 percent of the total energy used to manufacture Bounty paper towels and Charmin toilet tissue at P&G’s Albany, Ga., facility.
Constellation will build, own and operate the $200 million cogeneration plant, which in addition to supplying steam to the P&G facility, will generate electricity for the local utility, Georgia Power.
Representatives from P&G, Constellation and Georgia Power thanked the community for its support of the project, which they described as a win for the community, shoppers who choose Bounty and Charmin products, and each of the partners. Albany Mayor Dorothy Hubbard, and members of the Albany-Dougherty Economic Development Commission commended P&G - a local business for more than 40-years – and Constellation for providing renewable energy and jobs to the community. Construction activities are expected to create up to 500 new jobs over the next two years, with an additional 50 to 70 permanent local jobs for ongoing operations once the plant is built.
The biomass plant will significantly increase P&G’s use of renewable energy, helping get the company nearly halfway to its 2020 goal of obtaining 30 percent of its total energy from renewable sources. Currently, eight percent of P&G energy comes from renewable sources around the world powered by wind, solar and geothermal.
