Officials announce clean energy project, BCAP, could add 1,200 jobs in NE Ohio
News-Herald – Federal officials said Wednesday that $5.7 million will be awarded from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to establish a new Biomass Crop Assistance Program to be based in Northeast Ohio.
The money is allocated this year to enroll almost 5,400 acres in Lake, Geauga, Ashtabula and Trumbull counties in Ohio, plus Crawford, Erie, and Mercer counties in Pennsylvania. The local program will be based at the Aloterra Energy facility in Conneaut.
There are four project sites across the county — one each in Northeast Ohio and Arkansas and two in Missouri.
The entire project involves using the 50,000 acres to grow giant miscanthus, a sterile hybrid warm-season grass that can be converted into energy to be used for heat, power, liquid biofuels and bio-based products, officials said.
