Aemetis allocates $10.5M in tax credits for biofuels plant efficiency projects

Aemetis received an allocation of $10.5 million of Inflation Reduction Act tax credits by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Internal Revenue Service under the first phase of IRA Section 48C awards. The Aemetis Five Year Plan projects that Aemetis will receive a total of $450 million of IRA tax credits to support funding of its renewable fuels projects. In October 2023, Aemetis completed the sale of $63 million of IRA tax credits to a single buyer and received $55 million in funding. Aemetis was awarded the $10.5 million allocation of transferable tax credits to support the Mechanical Vapor Recompression energy efficiency project and other energy efficiency projects at the Aemetis Keyes ethanol production facility in California. The competitive process for funding was managed by the DOE as an advisor to the IRS which selected recipients based on an extensive and detailed review of each project. The MVR project and related upgrades are expected to cost about $30 million, with design engineering already completed and equipment procurement underway for planned installation in the first half of 2025. In addition to the $10.5 million of IRA tax credits, Aemetis already has been awarded $6 million of grant funding by the California Energy Commission and has been approved for up to $3.2 million of additional funding from the Pacific Gas & Electric Energy Efficiency Program, pending project completion and verification of energy savings. The MVR project is expected to reduce fossil natural gas use at the Keyes plant by 80% and lower the carbon intensity of the biofuels produced by the Keyes plant by more than 20%, which together is expected to substantially improve operating cash flow.