Clean Energy Fuels Corp. announced the successful completion and operational launch of its latest renewable natural gas (RNG) production facility at Tri-Cross Dairy in Viborg, South Dakota. The new RNG facility was built on a 5,000-cow dairy farm, where Clean Energy forecasts that it will produce 1 million gallons of negative carbon-intensity RNG annually.
The construction costs of the RNG production facility, which includes the build of digesters and processing plant, totaled $34 million and was completed in December. Clean Energy says the injecting of pipeline quality RNG began shortly after completion. Clean Energy is in process of filing the necessary applications to generate federal and state environmental credits.
“We anticipate 2024 to be a pivotal year in the demand for RNG fuel in the transportation market with the introduction of Cummins’ X15N natural gas engine for heavy-duty trucks. Clean Energy’s fueling infrastructure is expanding to meet that demand and we’ll need a constant source of additional low-carbon RNG to supply those stations,” said Clay Corbus, senior vice president for renewables at Clean Energy. “The new production facilities at Tri-Cross Dairy and the other farms in the Midwest that are now producing RNG is a critical component to our strategy.”
Financing for the Tri-Cross Dairy project is backed by one of Clean Energy’s RNG production joint ventures and developed by Dynamic Renewables. Clean Energy tells us this facility is one in a series of projects in the Midwest for which the companies have partnered together.