AHOSKIE – Enviva LP has yet to open its new facility in Ahoskie, but the plant is already experiencing growth.

In response to increasing demand for wood pellets and processed biomass fuel, Enviva announced today (Monday) its plans to increase the capacity of its wood-pellet manufacturing facility currently under construction in Ahoskie. The planned expansion of Enviva Pellets Ahoskie, located in Hertford County, will increase the plant’s production capacity by 50,000 metric tons annually, to 350,000 metric tons total.

In addition, the company now projects that the plant will provide more than 60 full-time jobs to area residents.

Premium quality wood pellets produced at the Ahoskie plant and bound for Enviva’s growing European client base will depart from the Chesapeake, VA-based port that Enviva acquired earlier this year, further enhancing the efficiency and reliability of its supply chain. The expansion of Enviva Pellets Ahoskie, construction of which is on time and on budget, will not impact existing plans for the plant to be operational by the end of this year.

“The demand for solid renewable fuels like wood pellets is taking off, and Enviva’s manufacturing footprint is growing with it,” said Enviva Chairman and CEO John Keppler in a press release issued Monday morning. “Our plans for expansion in the region, in addition to an increased capacity at Ahoskie, will ensure a compelling, stable source of economic growth to the land owners, loggers and haulers who have been hit hard in this region over the past several years.”

Enviva’s growing U.S. operations at Enviva Pellets Ahoskie, in addition to its pellet manufacturing facilities in Amory and Wiggins, Mississippi, and the deep water terminal at Enviva Port of Chesapeake, together position Enviva as an industry-leading, reliable supplier of sustainable wood biomass to the world’s largest companies. Enviva is currently developing sites for two additional wood pellet manufacturing plants in the mid-Atlantic region, each of which could be operational by late 2012, and another site in either Mississippi or Alabama which could become operational in early 2013.

Enviva has been supplying wood chips and wood pellets to customers in the U.S. and Europe since 2007. For more information about Enviva, including job opportunities, go to www.envivabiomass.com.