Nebraska-based Central Bio-Energy has announced plans to build three 100 million-gallon-per-year ethanol plants in Seward, Howard and Chase counties in Nebraska.

According to a press release, the announcement was made in the Nebraska State Capital Rotunda in Lincoln on Thursday. These plants will employ 150 full-time staff, with combined annual payroll in excess of $6 million. This investment will make CBE one of the leading ethanol producers in Nebraska, officials said. Projected annual revenues, when all three plants are operational, will approach $600 million.

The release noted counties, but not specific locations. The Lincoln Journal Star did a story on the announcement Friday with quotes from CBE officials declining to give specifics about the plant locations.

In the article, Matt Stryson, chairman of the Seward County Economic Development Board, “alluded to a virtual whirlwind of ethanol activity in which plant announcements in Nebraska have become almost a weekly occurrence.”

“I think what’s happening is that there is a time frame where there’s kind of a competition going on as far as ethanol plants being built,” he said. “And they’re all kind of under the gun for a time frame, and whoever gets built first is going to have an advantage.”