GE selected to help engineer and build ethanol and power plant
IMPERIAL — On Monday, California Ethanol and Power announced the selection of General Electric Power to be the company’s engineering, procurement and construction firm for its proposed plant in Imperial County.
CE+P is currently in the process to secure financing to construct a series of plants, with the first to be built in the Imperial Valley. Current plans estimate the company could financing secured this year and have its proposed plant in operation by 2021.
Under the signed memorandum of understanding, GE power will be tasked to perform the project’s initial conceptual engineering and cost analysis for the power island portion of the project
“GE Power is eager to help pave the way forward for the energy industry by redefining low-carbon energy,” GE Steam Power Chief Commercial Officer Michael Keroulle said in a statement. “As the project proceeds, we look forward to partnering with CE&P to help them meet their goals of clean, flexible and efficient energy.”
The proposed plant, to be located in the Keystone Industrial Area is expected to grow 52,000 acres of sugarcane locally and convert it into 68 million gallons of low-carbon fuel-grade ethanol per year. The plant is also expected to produce approximately 66 megawatts of baseload renewable energy and will also produce 930 million cubic feet of bio-methane.
CE+P’s ethanol and power plant intend to take advantage of the efforts underway at the state level to reduce the dependence on dirty fossil fuels to generate electricity and to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions by investing in cleaner biofuels.
“We are very pleased to have GE Power as an integral part of our project. GE Power is a highly regarded global expert in supplying advanced power-generating technologies to numerous industries,” said Dave Rubenstein, president and chief executive of CE&P. “We are confident that their expertise will enhance our ability to achieve our goal of building the first low-carbon energy facility producing extremely low-carbon ethanol, baseload renewable electricity, and pipeline-quality biogas.”
“With this partnership, we are not only leading the industry in innovative energy solutions but by using a renewable biomass fuel source and sustainable, carbon-neutral steam-power generation, we can apply GE’s steam technology in new ways to help reduce environmental impact,” Keroulle said. “We are continuing to better understand the fuel and how it performs with GE’s tangential firing technology while also carefully measuring emission levels of NOx (nitrogen oxides), Sox (sulfur oxides) and unburned carbon to meet and exceed California’s low-carbon standards.”
In an interview with the Imperial Valley Press in 2016, Rubenstein said one of the main reasons the Imperial Valley was a prime location for the plan was due to its agricultural qualities and their advantages to growing sugarcane.
He cited studies that demonstrated the conditions of the Valley could allow CP&E to see a 40 percent yield increase if it grew the sugar cane in Imperial County.
“It’s critical (to have plant in the Valley). We wouldn’t be able to build it anywhere in the state,” Rubenstein said at the time. “The Imperial Valley has proven to be one of the best places to grow sugar cane.”
The project itself is expected to create about 600 construction jobs in addition to more than 200 full-time jobs to operate the facility.