VOORHEESVILLE — Atlas Copco has received all the necessary approvals from the village of Voorheesville to move forward with the expansion of its School Road facility. 

The village zoning board in June approved variance requests to allow for an addition to be built 20 feet higher than the 40 feet allowed by current zoning. 

The facility’s 101,000-square-foot footprint will expand by 65,000 square feet, while zoning allows only for 20,000 square feet. Also in June, the planning commission OK’d the company’s proposed site plan, effectively signing off on the entire project. 

Atlas Copco is looking to expand on School Road in order to manufacture larger centrifugal compressors used in major industrial plants. 

The compressors have become an essential part of the burgeoning sector of American manufacturing that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and captures and sequesters carbon, including ethanol production, cement manufacturing, and power generation. These industries are able to reduce climate-changing greenhouse gasses by capturing carbon-dioxide emissions and permanently storing it underground.

Due to space constraints, Atlas Copco has been unable to make the larger compressors stateside, instead having to import them from its plants in Germany.