Crews break ground on a new biogas plant that's expected to turn human waste into energy.
Officials say, it'll also produce dozens of jobs and additional revenue for the local economy.
Flint Mayor Dayne Walling says, "This takes city infrastructure that we already have. You look around and you see every big community has one of these waste water treatment plants. We're taking all that infrastructure and creating new jobs and creating new energy."
That energy will come from an interesting source, human waste.
There's a lab inside the City of Flint's Waste Water Treatment Facility that shows the process of changing human and food waste into energy.
It's technology brought to the Flint area from Sweden and Swedish Biogas International.
The company says it's happening over there and will happen here.
Lennart Johansson, Consulate General for Sweden in Michigan, says "Today in Sweden over 90% of all residential houses are heated from heat that comes from forest waste, city waste, and municipal waste."
Officials say it's a cost-savings to communities by capturing and using energy from waste and producing profit by selling electricity and fuel back to the grid.
U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow says, "Michigan right now is 3rd in the country in clean energy patents for new ideas and with this plant here. With the help of partners like Kettering University, we can jump even farther in front."
Tom Guise, CEO of Swedish Biogas International, says "Flint was an area that needed the business. It needed the work, and the governor recognized that and so when they looked at cities and bring the business to Michigan from Sweden, it was a matter of which city. Flint needed the jobs and needed some help."
The initial plant is expected to be complete by the end of the year. Electricity generation is supposed to begin around the first of next year.
