October 7, 2022. Aemetis, Inc. announced the closing of $25 million of long-term financing with Greater Commercial Lending (GCL), which provides loans to businesses and organizations in under-served and rural communities, to build dairy biogas digesters and a biogas pipeline for the Aemetis Biogas Central Dairy Digester Project located in Stanislaus County, California.
The long-term, 20-year project financing was guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) through the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) and carries approximately a 6% fixed interest rate for the first five years.
Methane digesters are systems that promote the decomposition of organic matter, including animal manure, food wastes and wastewater biosolids, into renewable fuels to replace petroleum products. The Aemetis biogas project is a collection of anerobic 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 is 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. In addition to using the RNG at the Aemetis ethanol plant and the onsite RNG fueling station that is being built, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) will deliver the transportation fuel via gas pipeline throughout California for sale to customers.