Louisiana sugar mill turns power company into customer

Thibodaux, La. — Along Louisiana Highway 1, a business that dominates the landscape makes its own fog.

In a cooling pond, and in the giant mill itself, Lafourche Sugar lets off a little steam.  Actually, it’s quite a bit of steam and in this place, steam is money.

“We produce all of our steam-generated power,” said Greg Nolan, Lafourche Sugar’s president.

In the fall, often until a few days after Christmas, the mill grinds sugar, squeezing the sweetness out of the cane stalk and feeding giant boilers. Steam rushing into a turbine produces electrical energy used in the sugar mill.

via Louisiana sugar mill turns power company into customer – FOX 8 WVUE New Orleans News, Weather, Sports.