Western New York Energy, LLC was founded in the year 2004. Its mandate and mission is to develop renewable energy sources in western New York State. The state of the art facility was completed in November 2007 at a cost of about $90 million, and production commenced immediately. With the start of production a milestone in the history of renewable energy production was reached, as Western New York Energy’s facility is the first in all of the northeastern United States to produce and distribute ethanol as an alternative energy source.
The facility processes about 20 million of bushels of corn each year into:
• Fuel grade ethanol which is mixed with regular gasoline for use in western New York as well as other markets along the eastern sea board. About 55 million gallons are produced.
• “Dairy Distillers Grain” is produced. This unique, low-fat distiller’s grain is sold to feed users like dairy farms throughout the western New York area. About 160,000 tons of this feed is produced.
• About 1.5 million gallons of crude corn oil is also produced. This is then sold to processing plants to be made into biodiesel. It is also processed into 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide which is then added to beverages for carbonation and food processing and additional uses.