Construction Begins On A North Dakota Ethanol Plant

SPIRITWOOD, N.D. (AP) — Officials this week plan to start construction on an ethanol plant in southeastern North Dakota that's been in the works for two years.

The Jamestown Sun reports a ground-breaking ceremony is scheduled Friday for Great River Energy's Dakota Spirit AgEnergy plant at Spiritwood. It will cost about $150 million to build.

Production is slated to begin in January 2015. The plant will employ about 36 people and will use about 23 million bushels of corn to produce about 65 million gallons of the alternative fuel each year.

The plant is to use excess steam power from Great River Energy's Spiritwood Station. The combined heat and coal-fired power plant currently is idled due to lack of demand for electricity in Minnesota but is scheduled to come online in January 2015.