Sweet Sugarcane Solution: The Digest’s 2022 Multi-Slide Guide to California Ethanol + Power

April 22, 2022

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by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Here’s a short but sweet look at California Ethanol + Power and their Sugar Valley Energy site of sugarcane feedstock for ethanol production. In today’s Digest, from their sugarcane yields, carbon intensity, acreage, infrastructure, market, jobs, and more. READ MORE

CE+P Invited to Submit Part II Application for U.S. Dept of Energy Renewable Energy and Efficient Energy Loan Guarantee (California Ethanol + Power)

Local Company to Build First Ethanol Plant Using Sugar Cane as Feedstock (Los Angeles Business Journal)

Sugar Valley Energy receives sales and use tax exclusion (Ethanol Producer Magazine)

IHI Power Services Corp. Expands Partnership With California Ethanol + Power in 15-Year Asset Management Deal -- IPSC to Spearhead Operations, Maintenance and Now Asset Management Needs for CE+P’s Sugar Valley Energy Campus (IHI/Business Wire))

Sugarcane cultivation will boost Imperial County’s energy boom (Benson Farms/Ethanol Producer Magazine)

Excerpt from Benson Farms/Ethanol Producer Magazine: With the $1 billion investment planned for the Sugar Valley Energy project, we are enthusiastic about the prospect of growing sugarcane. The crop will be used to produce low-carbon ethanol for a variety of uses including more sustainable transportation fuel. Besides ethanol, the project will also produce bioelectricity and pipeline-grade biogas. At Benson Farms, we have grown sugarcane for almost a decade and found it uses approximately the same amount of water as forage crops. Our local farming community can be counted on to innovate and adapt to future water conservation goals, and we have proven that sugarcane can thrive in the Valley.

At full scale, the project will contract with as many as 100 farms to produce 48,000 acres of sugarcane. That is compared to more than 250,000 acres currently farmed for alfalfa and forage grass. Since the crop will be processed right here in the Valley, the county will enjoy greater economic benefits of increased employment and year-round harvest and ethanol production. Contracts for the sugarcane crop will be multi-year agreements providing better returns, consistent cashflow, and greater economic protection for growers than typical single year crops.

Even with electric vehicles gaining their share of vehicles on the road, ethanol will remain an important product for decades to come. The other products associated with this project, like baseload zero carbon electricity and biogas are immediately needed and will only grow in importance as California pursues its wide array of climate change and clean energy goals. California is right to encourage ethanol production in a manner that further reduces carbon emissions and moves Californians away from 100 percent reliance on less sustainable imported ethanol. Lower-carbon fuel and renewable energy remains critically important for Imperial County, especially with our air quality challenges. Moreover, the ethanol plant development and related sugarcane cultivation is beneficial to farmers and the region which continues to grapple with double-digit unemployment and a lack of new industrial development.

It seems quite fitting that Imperial Valley’s oldest industry represents a key component of one of its newest economic development trends. READ MORE