Panda Ethanol to build 100M-gallon ethanol plant in Nebraska

Panda Ethanol Inc. today announced that it intends to build a 100 million gallon-per-year ethanol plant in Lincoln County, Nebraska. When finished, the facility will annually refine approximately 38 million bushels of corn. The ethanol produced by the Lincoln plant should displace approximately 2.6 million barrels of imported oil a year.

The Lincoln facility is the fifth 100 million gallon ethanol project announced by Panda, and the company's first to be located in Nebraska. The plant will be built on a 400-acre site three miles east of the village of Wallace and will be fueled by natural gas.

The plant is expected to create an estimated 48 skilled jobs and 133 support jobs. It should also inject more than $200 million of additional goods and services into the area's economy over the next 10 years.

Construction of the Lincoln County ethanol plant will take approximately 18 months. The completion date is dependent upon financing, regulatory approvals and other conditions. Panda has submitted its request for an air permit with the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality.

Panda previously announced that it successfully completed the debt and equity financing on a 100 million gallon ethanol plant in Hereford, Texas. The company has begun construction on the 380-acre site and anticipates ethanol production to commence in the second half of 2007.

The company recently entered into a reverse merger with Cirracor, a publicly-held corporation which trades over the counter. The merger is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2006. The combined entity will keep the name Panda Ethanol Inc.

For more information:

www.pandaenergy.com

Cleantech developments making news in the past 24 hours

• Generating energy underwater from good vibrations
• Indian companies order 300MW in wind power
• Beijing meets "blue sky days" target early
• Finland, Vietnam launch fish fuel project

View the last week of cleantech developments here | Subscribe to full feed