Aemetis plans $130 million funding under newly expanded Stanislaus County C-PACE program

Aemetis Inc. announced March 19 that the Stanislaus County board of supervisors in California unanimously approved an extension of the county’s commercial property assessed clean energy (C-PACE) program at its March 11 meeting.

Established by the approval of local governments, C-PACE programs can be used by private industry to finance energy-efficiency upgrades and renewable energy facilities.

“We appreciate the board and staff of Stanislaus County for their support of the C-PACE program that we expect to help Aemetis fund energy-efficiency and renewable energy projects and refinance recently completed projects,” said Eric McAfee, chairman and CEO of Aemetis.

“The C-PACE program provides longer 30-year terms and repayment through property-tax bills [to provide] a new source of capital for growing our business,” McAfee added.

Stanislaus County’s recent action approves participation in the California Enterprise Development Authority, which allows financing of private projects through state municipal bonds that are free of state taxes to the lenders.

In addition, payments through county property-tax bills provide lenders enhanced protections and liquidity, helping raise funds for qualifying projects.

The Aemetis renewable energy and energy-efficiency projects expected to be eligible for C-PACE financing include:

• The Keyes plant mechanical vapor-recompression system.

• The expansion of dairy renewable natural-gas (RNG) production.

• The planned Riverbank sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plant.

• Refinancing of the recently completed Keyes solar generation system and RNG-upgrading hub.