Toray to Build $22.7 Million Power Facility

Toray Plastics (America) will be enhancing one of its campuses in the coming year, pumping about $22.7 million into a new project in North Kingstown.

According to Plastic News, Toray plans to build a new cogeneration power facility that will create both electricity and heat from natural gas. The new project will help power Toray’s fan polypropylene division., as well as the site’s main office building.  Currently, Toray has a smaller cogeneration plant at its North Kingstown location, which helps to power its Lumirror polyester film division – supplying continuous power, even during severe weather events.

As one of Rhode Island’s biggest consumers of electricity, Toray has already employed alternative energies such as a large solar farm on its 70-acre North Kingstown campus to offset its high electricity usage. National Grid, the company’s electricity supplier, will be covering a portion of the portions for the cogeneration power plant.

The new system is slated to be operational by March 2014. According to Toray, these two cogeneration plants will “dramatically reduce Toray’s demand on the supply of electricity to nearby Rhode Island communities.”