VayuGrid Signs MOU for Biofuel Cluster in Ethiopia

BANGALORE, November 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Starting With a 2,000 Plus Acre, the Long Term Goal is to Create a Cluster of 1,00,000 Acres Under a Collaborative Model

VayuGrid, a biofuel supply chain company based in Bangalore, has signed a MOU to create a biofuel cluster around its VayuSap™,  an elite, high-yield Pongamia, in Ethiopia Africa. The cluster will create a $2.5M biofuel investment opportunity and is part of a larger government plan to develop a biofuel park in Ethiopia. This park is a critical step to reduce the country's commitment of 87% of free cash on imported crude while at the same time creating local job opportunities and an ecosystem of value added businesses. 

Phase 1 is a 2,000 plus acre footprint under a collaborative model involving the participation of a local partner bringing in land and labour, investors putting the capital and VayuGrid providing the IP and downstream contracts, thereby creating a sustainable and replicable business model.

The long term goal is to create biofuel cluster and replicate a certain scale of footprint in 100,000 acres. During a recently concluded roadshow in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Doctor Abera Deressa, former state minister for Agriculture, indicated that Pongamia tree products can be an important factor in community development and environmental protection.

VayuGrid's IP in elite Pongamia combines high-yield plant technology along with customised practices to ensure economic returns that assure such biofuel parks are financially sustainable to governments and investors. Also, management of these plantations can be carried out by local labour, as it does not call for highly skilled labour. And being extremely amenable to a hybrid model of people and mechanisation, it presents local entrepreneurs with an opportunity to establish an ecosystem around the biofuel plantation that is both sustainable and long term. 

"VayuGrid is bringing together local and global businesses that are dependent on crude and looking for ways to hedge against currency fluctuations while ensuring a predictable supply of green energy,"  said Doug Peterson, CEO, VayuGrid.  "Our biofuel clusters ensure a sustainable biofuel supply for downstream markets and high returns for governments, land owners and investors." 

Ethiopia was chosen strategically based on the economics and agriculture. Its large land bank of arid and unproductive land lends itself perfectly to creating a green energy supply base for local and global markets over the next 60 years.

About VayuGrid

VayuGrid Marketplace Services Pvt Ltd is a Bangalore based company focused on building biofuel supply chain around Elite Pongamia and has developed elite planting material branded VayuSap™, which are more superior to "ordinary" Pongamia in precocity, yield, disease resistance and specific biochemical products of industrial value. VayuGrid is focusing its efforts on supplying VayuSap™ for building BioEnergy Plantations in markets such as Asia, Africa and the Middle East. www.vayugrid.com

Primary Media Contact: Latha Chandradeep, [email protected], 91-80-42084016