Mid-Kansas Electric Co. agree to purchase power from ethanol-linked plant

Abengoa Bioenergy has signed an agreement that brings a proposed combination cellulosic ethanol and power plant near Hugoton, Kan., closer to reality.

Mid-Kansas Electric Co., a group of five rural electric cooperatives in western Kansas, has agreed to purchase the electricity from a 75-megawatt power plant that would be adjacent to the cellulosic ethanol plant.

“As an international energy company we believe this project is an important part of our continual growth in bioenergy,” Javier Salgado Leirado, president and chief executive officer of Abengoa said in a statement.

Abengoa, based in Spain, is the largest producer of ethanol in Europe and a large producer in the U.S.

The Kansas ethanol plant, expected to produce 15 million gallons of fuel annually, would use cellulose such as corn stalks, wheat straw and switchgrass. The biomass also would be used to produce power.

Construction is expected to start this year, with the facility in operation in 2012. When completed it will have 90 full-time employees and purchase $13 million of biomass annually from area farmers.

“This power purchase agreement will generate (power) while benefiting area farmers,” said L. Earl Watkins Jr. president and chief executive officer of Mid-Kansas Electric.

source: kansascity