Fibrowatt, a company that generates electricity by burning chicken waste, will build a $140 million power plant near Elkin. Surry County officials made the announcement this afternoon at a press conference inside the county government center in Dobson. The plant would support 80 or more jobs in plant operations, fuel transportation, barn cleanout services and the operation of a fertilizer plant. "This project is an important development for Surry County, bringing new jobs to the region and increasing our tax revenues," Craig Hunter, the chairman of the Surry County Board of Commissioners, said in a statement reported by the Winston-Salem Journal.

Surry County is expected to give Fibrowatt a tax incentive and construction assistance package valued at $5.28 million over 8 years, according to a press release. Surry will also offer assistance with improvements to water and sewer and roads. The plant is also expected to create as many as 300 construction jobs during the two-year construction phase of the project. And it could contribute an estimated $10 million annually to the local economy through fuel purchases and transportation, employee payroll, and facility maintenance costs.

Surry had been in the running with Wilkes County, which offered a site in its industrial park in North Wilkesboro. Fibrowatt officials said they preferred the Surry site because it is close to a Duke Power plant, poultry producers and major roads like Interstate 77 and N.C. 268. Fibrowatt plans to contract with farmers in both Surry and Wilkes counties to buy their chicken waste. Fibrowatt plans to begin construction in 2009 and would begin operating in Surry in 2011.

The Elkin plant will be designed to produce as much as 40 megawatts of electricity, generating enough energy to power about 30,000 homes.