Greater Commercial Lending Completes $25 Million in Financing for Dairy Farm Biogas Digesters and Pipeline to Produce Renewable Natural Gas

Project Will Process Methane From California Dairy Farms Into Renewable Natural Gas for Use as Low-carbon Transportation Fuel; Loans Guaranteed by USDA REAP

RENO, Nev., Oct. 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Greater Commercial Lending (GCL), which provides loans to businesses and organizations in under-served and rural communities, has completed $25 million in long-term financing to help develop and build dairy biogas digesters and a biogas pipeline for the Aemetis Biogas Central Dairy Digester Project located in Stanislaus County, California. The financing has been arranged as a loan guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) through the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP).

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 six dairy biogas digesters is scheduled for completion in Q1 2023. A biogas pipeline connects the dairies to the Aemetis Keyes ethanol plant, where the biogas is converted to a low-carbon transportation fuel. In addition to using the RNG at the Aemetis ethanol plant and planned onsite fueling station, Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) will deliver the transportation fuel via gas pipeline throughout California for sale to customers.

"We are thrilled to be involved in this project, which is advancing a pioneering solution to a real-world issue. We truly believe efforts like this need to be brought to market, and government-backed loans can be a low-cost and long-term financing source for these important projects," said Jeremy Gilpin, executive vice president of GCL. GCL is one of the largest providers of USDA government-guaranteed loans. "The Aemetis team has a proven track record in promoting cutting-edge technologies in renewable fuels."

"Government-guaranteed loans, such as those through USDA REAP, can be crucial in getting new and innovative projects such as the Aemetis Biogas Central Dairy project built. With GCL's support, we've continued to expand the number of digesters which capture methane emissions from dairy farms and convert the methane into a negative carbon renewable fuel," said Eric McAfee, CEO and founder of Aemetis, Inc., based in Cupertino, California.

About 25% of the methane emissions in California are emitted from dairy waste lagoons. When fully built, the Aemetis biogas project plans to connect dairy digesters spanning 66 dairy farms across a 40-mile pipeline, capturing more than 1.65 MMBtu of dairy methane each year. The project is designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to an estimated 6.8 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide over 10 years, equal to removing the emissions from approximately 150,000 cars per year.

Greater Commercial Lending (GCL) is a credit organization that brings together credit unions and community lenders from around the U.S. to provide government-guaranteed loans to businesses and initiatives in rural and under-served markets throughout the U.S. and its territories. It helps finance key infrastructure services, like power, renewable energy, transportation and fiber optic, as well as schools, hospitals, restaurants, agriculture, hotels and manufacturers. GCL partners with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which guarantee loans, to arrange credit at favorable terms. GCL is a subsidiary of Greater Nevada Credit Union (GNCU).

Headquartered in Cupertino, California, Aemetis is a renewable natural gas, renewable fuel and biochemicals company focused on the acquisition, development and commercialization of innovative technologies that replace petroleum-based products and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Founded in 2006, Aemetis has completed Phase 1 and is expanding a California biogas digester network and pipeline system to convert dairy waste gas into Renewable Natural Gas. Aemetis owns and operates a 65 million gallon per year ethanol production facility in California's Central Valley near Modesto that supplies about 80 dairies with animal feed. Aemetis also owns and operates a 50 million gallon per year production facility on the East Coast of India producing high quality distilled biodiesel and refined glycerin for customers in India and Europe. Aemetis is developing the Carbon Zero sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel fuel biorefineries in California to utilize distillers corn oil and other renewable oils to produce low carbon intensity renewable jet and diesel fuel using cellulosic hydrogen from waste orchard and forest wood, while pre-extracting cellulosic sugars from the waste wood to be processed into high value cellulosic ethanol at the Keyes plant. Aemetis holds a portfolio of patents and exclusive technology licenses to produce renewable fuels and biochemicals. For additional information about Aemetis, please visit www.aemetis.com.

Media Contact: 
Julia Landon
[email protected]

SOURCE Greater Commercial Lending