California Ethanol + Power last week awarded a 15-year contract to CHS Inc. to market and sell the 68 million gallons of Essential Ethanol to be produced annually by the Sugar Valley Energy campus located in California’s Imperial Valley. Minnesota-based CHS is the number one farmer cooperative in the country and one of the nation’s largest suppliers of ethanol-enhanced gasoline and retailers of E85 ethanol.

Sugar Valley Energy will be a 160-acre multi-plant campus consisting of sugarcane-to-ethanol, sugarcane to low-carbon power plus biomethane and wastewater treatment facilities. Once production reaches full capacity, Sugar Valley Energy is designed to produce 68 million gallons of ultra-low carbon, fuel-grade sugarcane ethanol each year. This Essential Ethanol will be mixed with gasoline for cleaner burning fuel.

Construction financing for Sugar Valley Energy is expected to be in place in the new year, with groundbreaking getting underway soon. Ethanol production is set to begin in 2023.