New Pellet Mill Entices Area Sawmills

Some Georgia sawmills will have a new market for their byproducts as Spectrum Energy Georgia LLC plans to begin construction this summer of the largest industrial wood pellet facility in the world at Adel, Ga. and expects to commission the plant 12 months later, or summer of 2024. The plant will operate at the site of an idled particleboard facility.

The plant will have the ability to receive and process all forms of biomass, including sawmill residues (chips, sawdust and shavings), pulpwood, top wood, and in-woods chips.

Weyerhaeuser built the particleboard mill in 1968 and operated it until Weyerhaeuser sold the facility to SierraPine in 1999, before shut down in 2014 upon SierraPine’s sale to Flakeboard.

Phase I of the project will build a 600,000 tons annual production capacity plant that will be increased during a Phase II construction to 1.32 million tons annually.

Much of the Spectrum leadership team is no stranger to the wood industry, including members of the former British Columbia-based Ainsworth Lumber family. Michael Ainsworth serves as CEO & President of Spectrum and Douglas Ainsworth is VP Operations.

Recently, Spectrum Energy Georgia and Concerned Citizens of Cook County (4C) signed a settlement and cooperation agreement, following 4C’s concerns about the air permit issued last July by Georgia Dept. of Natural Resources Environmental Protection Div. to Spectrum for the two-phase construction of the wood pellet facility in Adel.

The agreement basically allows Spectrum to increase transparency to the community in a number of ways, including regular reporting of construction activity, air emission and dust control enhancements and reporting thereof, noise abatement and public listening sessions.