By BILL MEDLEY, Evansville Courier & Press staff writer
A day after Spencer County officials announced a $180 million ethanol plant was in the works, another company said Thursday that it planned to build a $200 million project in Pike County combining an ethanol production facility with 30-megawatt power plant.
The Ripatti Group, based in Nevada, said it has selected a 200-acre site in Pike County to build the facility, which would burn organic material such as corn stover, wood chips and sawdust to produce electricity. Electricity from the plant would be used for the ethanol plant with the remainder being sold to the regional power grid. The company declined to identify the site further.
The ethanol plant would produce 50 million gallons of ethanol annually and the entire project would employ 100 full-time workers, the company said. The ethanol facility would process 20 million bushels of corn per year and the power plant would use 200,000 tons of biomass as fuel.
Pike County officials said the project is one of the largest investments there in years.
"We're really pleased with the announcement of 100 jobs," said John Craig, who serves as mayor of Petersburg, Ind., and president of the Pike County Economic Growth and Development Council. "A $200 million investment is one of the largest announcements we've been able to make in some time."