The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has selected a team comprised of CALSTART, General Motors, Pacific Ethanol, CleanFUEL USA, Community Environmental Council and others to receive grants to jump start an alternative fuel network in California. The grant provides partial funding to build 15 publicly accessible E85 ethanol stations.
Currently there is only one public station that sells E85 ethanol (85% ethanol and 15% gasoline) in California, despite the fact the state has over 300,000 flex-fuel cars capable of running on the fuel. This project will create the building blocks of an E85 refueling network.
With this initial round of funding, ten E85 pumps will be constructed at existing United Oil gas stations in the greater Los Angeles area. Four pumps will go to stations along Highway 101 between Ventura and San Luis Obispo County. A final E85 pump will be installed in the San Joaquin Valley along Highway 99 in Tulare.
Of the more than 300,000 ethanol capable flex-fuel vehicles in California, approximately 1/3 were produced by GM. GM is the only car company currently selling cars in California that can operate on E85.
There are approximately 1,000 E85 ethanol stations throughout the country, mostly in the Midwest.
Ethanol for this project will be produced in California and supplied by Pacific Ethanol. There are three existing ethanol plants in the state and efforts underway to build four more by the end of 2007. Within the next two years, California ethanol production should reach 400 million gallons per year, an amount that would be significant enough to cover the demand from the E85 ethanol stations.
CALSTART and its fellow team members will begin work immediately and plan to have the first station operational within five to six months.
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