This is a project description of a state energy office project dealing with energy efficiency and renewable energy that the State Energy Program (SEP) published in its bimonthly newsletter Conservation Update.

December 2006

Two new biodiesel plants will soon be built in Alabama. The Independence Renewable Energy Corporation will produce up to 40 million gallons of biodiesel annually. In Athens, Melvin and Beverly Kilgore plan to break ground on a $9 million biodiesel company that can produce 4 million gallons of biodiesel per year.

The biodiesel from both plants will be sold to local distributors and mixed with petroleum diesel to make different fuel grades. These refineries will join Alabama Biodiesel Corporation in Moundville, which last year became Alabama's first biodiesel plant.
"We’re working to make Alabama a national leader in alternative fuels," Governor Bob Riley said, "Alternative fuels hold the promise of a cleaner environment, a stronger economy, … and a way to reduce America's dependence on foreign energy sources."

For more information, read the governor's October 10 press release.

In November, the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs received a $312,000 federal grant to install biodiesel and ethanol-blended fuel pumps along Interstate 65. The grant was part of a series of 2006 grants by DOE Clean Cities to build the infrastructure for alternative fuels in the United States.

And in December, Alabama Agriculture & Industries Commissioner Ron Sparks announced the state is establishing a new Center for Alternative Fuels to support the nascent alternative fuels industry in the state. For details, see the December 4 news story published by the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) on the EERE State Activities & Partnerships Web site.