A planned factory will add badly needed jobs in an underdeveloped part of west Alabama.

Gov. Kay Ivey’s office announced Friday that the Maryland-based Enviva Partners plans to invest about $175 million on a wood pellet production plant in Sumter County. It will ship product on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway from the Port of Epes.

The statement says the proposed facility is expected to create at least 85 full-time jobs. It’s also supposed to generate about 180 more jobs in logging, transportation and other areas.

Enviva calls itself the world’s largest producer of wood pellets, which are burned for power production. It still needs permits for the plant but says it expects to begin construction early next year.

Enviva owns and operates eight plants in the Southeast.