A power plant fueled by poultry litter and other biomass will open in Montgomery County, a Pennsylvania-based company, Fibrowatt, reports The Charlotte Observer.

Biscoe, 60 miles east of Charlotte, becomes the third site for a poultry-powered plant by Fibrowatt. The company has already announced plants in Sampson County, in eastern North Carolina, and Surry County, north of Charlotte near the Virginia border.

Poultry litter is droppings and bedding material from chicken and turkey farms. Fibrowatt opened the nation's first power plant fueled by poultry litter in Minnesota in 2007.

Construction on the Montgomery County plant is to start in 2010 with a 2012 opening, Fibrowatt said. The plant is to employ about 100 people, the company said, and about 300 construction workers.

The plan is for the plant to generate 55 megawatts, enough to power about 40,000 homes, Fibrowatt told The Charlotte Observer. The output would help utilities comply with a recent state law requiring that a portion of their electricity come from renewable-energy sources such as the sun, wind and farm wastes beginning in 2012. Montgomery County and the town of Biscoe granted Fibrowatt $4.8 million in tax incentives, the company said.