In the United States (US), Aemetis, Inc., a renewable natural gas (RNG) and renewable fuels company, has announced the closing of US$25 million of long-term financing with Greater Commercial Lending (GCL) to build dairy biogas digesters and a biogas pipeline for the Aemetis Biogas Central Dairy Digester Project located in Stanislaus County, California (CA).
An error occurred
On your profile you can see what subscriptions you have access to and more information.
Is some of the information wrong – please contact our customer service.
Please reload the page
Do you want to read the whole article?
- Six editions per year
- Full access to all digital content
- The E-magazine Bioenergy international
- And more ...
GCL provides loans to businesses and organizations in underserved and rural communities and is one of the largest providers of US Department of Agriculture (USDA) government-guaranteed loans.
The long-term, 20-year project financing was guaranteed by the USDA through the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) and carries approximately a 6 percent fixed interest rate for the first five years.
First six digesters nearing completion
The Aemetis Biogas Central Dairy Digester Project is a collection of anaerobic digesters at dairy farm lagoons that utilize waste animal manure to generate renewable methane gas to produce renewable natural gas (RNG).
The construction and testing of the six dairy biogas digesters funded by the USDA-guaranteed loan are scheduled for completion in Q1 2023.
A biogas pipeline connects the dairies to the Aemetis Keyes ethanol plant, where the biogas will be converted to low-carbon RNG to be used as a transportation fuel.
Government-guaranteed loans, such as those through USDA REAP, can be crucial in getting new and innovative projects such as the Aemetis Biogas Central Dairy Digester project built. With GCL’s support, we continue to expand the number of digesters that capture methane emissions from dairy farms and convert the methane into a negative carbon renewable fuel, said Eric McAfee, CEO, and Founder of Aemetis, Inc.
In addition to using the RNG at the Aemetis ethanol plant and the onsite RNG fueling station that is being built, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) will deliver the transportation fuel via gas pipeline throughout California for sale to customers.
About 25 percent of the methane emissions in California are emitted from dairy waste lagoons.
When fully built, the Aemetis Biogas Central Dairy Digester Project plans to connect dairy digesters spanning 66 dairy farms across a 40-mile pipeline, capturing more than 1.65 MMBtu of dairy methane each year.
The fully operational project is designed to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions equivalent to an estimated 6.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) over ten years.
We are thrilled to be involved in this project, which is advancing a pioneering solution to a real-world issue. We truly believe efforts like this need to be brought to market, and government-backed loans can be a low-cost and long-term financing source for these important projects. The Aemetis team has a proven track record in promoting cutting-edge technologies in renewable fuels, said Jeremy Gilpin, EVP of GCL.
