Just spoke to J.B. Voss, V.P. of Business Development at
Alternative Energy Sources (AENS). He gave me some solid information about the company's progress.
He said they expect to close on financing in July
for the first two plants using a combination of debt and equity. He said they are being very cautious about diluting
their own interest (and ours) as shareholders but that banks will not agree to finance the projects entirely through loans.
He did confirm that other companies have had problems getting financing from banks but that AE has not encountered any obstacles in that regard. They seem to easily win the confidence of bankers. I mentioned that there are quite a few new ethanol projects that plan to open within the next 24 months, but he said many of them don't get past the planning stage. Others don't get financing, and others just don't persevere. AE, on the other hand, is totally dedicated to becoming the low-cost producer in the ethanol market.
Mr. Voss said that due to the time-consuming process of getting permits and dealing with government agencies, the plant openings are expected to take place in early 2009.
He said permitting should be completed in June for the Iowa plant and in July or August for the Illinois plant.
Ground-breaking could be as early as July in Iowa, or as soon as the financing is in place. He confirmed that a construction company has already been chosen but he could not identify them by name before it is released to the public.
I was glad to hear that they expect the demand for ethanol
and dried distiller's grains (DDG's) to be increasing at such a rate that whatever the company can produce will be sold
without difficulty.
He mentioned that cellulosic ethanol capabilities are not a priority, but that it will be taken up in the future.
Mr. Voss told me that he will personally be in charge of
marketing the DDG.
Finally, I asked him about the Dynamic Duo article and he said it just came to their attention today when they received the publication (Ethanol World, I think), and someone played the Batman theme song in the office as a joke. That was the first time anyone had ever referred to Mark Beemer and Lee Blank in that way. It was definitely not something widespread in the renewable fuel industry, at least not until today.
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