INDIAN RIVER COUNTY - The company considering building a waste-to-ethanol plant in Indian River County was recently awarded a jobs grant from the state.
INEOS New Plant BioEnergy qualified for and was awarded a state qualified target industry tax refund program grant of $165,000.
The grant is based on the creation of 55 new jobs with annual wages on average of $45,000.
The company plans to break ground in September on the buildings located on the old Ocean Spray property in south Vero Beach, nearby the county landfill.
The Indian River County BioEnergy Center, as the facility will be called, is expected to produce 8 million gallons of third-generation bioethanol per year from renewable biomass, including yard, wood and vegetative wastes, according to a press release.
Officials anticipate about 80 percent of the product used to create energy will be vegetative waste, including tree stumps, limbs, leaves, grass and plant material.
The project investment will be more than $100 million and is anticipated to create 150 construction jobs in the next two years, as well as upwards of 50 full- time jobs.
The Indian River County Commission has already approved a jobs grant of $310,000 for the company as well, to be paid out over three years.
The company has already been awarded a $50 million grant by the U.S. Department of Energy. It was the only project in Florida to receive the grant, which is directed at projects that will lay the foundation for full commercial scale development of biomass-based energy industries.
Helene Caseltine, economic development director for the Indian River County Chamber of Commerce was excited to learn of the grant approval.
"We've been working with them for two years. This is very exciting," she said.
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