Blue Sky BioEnergy Ltd. has announced plans to build a 40-million-litre ethanol plant seven kilometres southwest of Melville.
Construction on the $30 million facility is expected to start in April 2007, with the plant opening a year later and ready to turn the 2008 wheat crop into fuel.
The company announced last week a 160 acre site along Highway 10 had been chosen but it still had to be purchased and undergo an environmental assessment.
Earlier, company officials had said the plant would be along Highway 22, between Neudorf and Killaly.
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However, the board of directors took the advice of engineers Clifton Associates, which made the recommendation after narrowing down several sites based on factors such as soil type, water availability and utilities.
Micheal Halyk, manager of South Parkland Regional Economic Development Association, said the community has worked for years to obtain an ethanol plant.
“It’s been a dream for quite some time,” he said.
Several attempts fell through but he said 14 individuals kept the dream alive and worked through the REDA to make it reality.
The selected location has good highway and grid road access; both can handle heavy weight traffic. It is also near the Canadian National Railway main line, a natural gas line, three phase power and water.
Local connections
Halyk said Blue Sky will buy local grain at a price that covers cost-of-production and provides profit.
He said it’s a difficult time to ask farmers to invest but they can gain power in the marketplace by being both investors and suppliers.
He also said the proponents would like to know what the federal government intends to do about implementing a national mandate.
More than 200 potential investors have already expressed interest in the plant.
