A renewable diesel plant in South Carolina is expected to create jobs and growth for renewable technologies. By: Caroline Gallegos,Staff Writer, NOVOGRADAC Renewable energy technology was already a growing industry, but as unemployment skyrockets, a new renewable diesel plant could play an important role in economic recovery and job creation in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. As investors, policymakers and fund managers look toward the future, the need for renewable energy technologies and economic growth remains clear. READ MORE... LIKE | SHARE | COMMENT #novogradac #bioeconomysolutions #climatechange #renewablediesel #jobs #investing #valueinvesting #impactinvesting

1. R
A Renewable Diesel Plant in
South Carolina is Expected to
Create Jobs and Growth for
Renewable Energy Technologies
CAROLINE GALLEGOS, STAFF WRITER, NOVOGRADAC
Renewable energy technology was already a growing industry, but as
unemployment skyrockets, a new renewable diesel plant could play an
important role in economic recovery and job creation in the wake of the
COVID-19 pandemic. As investors, policymakers and fund managers look
toward the future, the need for renewable energy technologies and economic
growth remains clear.
Before states began to order residents to shelter-
in-place and non-essential businesses started to
temporarily close, Carolina Opportunity Funds
announced that its fund IMPACT Carolina made its
first opportunity zones (OZ) investment in a new
renewable diesel plant for BioEconomy Solutions.
The development will be located in Georgetown, S.C.,
and is expected to create 200 direct full-time jobs
and another 100 supply-chain support jobs.
Carolina Opportunity Funds was started primarily
as an entity to help form and manage a fund under
its umbrella of management.
“Our first year was really about real estate,” said
Hannah Kirby, managing partner of Carolina
Opportunity Funds. “Mostly because nobody knew
how to navigate beyond that because there weren’t
a lot of guidelines. We started getting information
about the qualified opportunity zone business
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Journal of Tax CreditsTM
Insights On Affordable Housing, Community Development, Historic Preservation, Renewable Energy and Opportunity Zones
June 2020  Volume XI  Issue VI Published by Novogradac

2. continued from page 1
portion and had a number of companies reach out to
us.”
BioEconomy Solutions turned out to be the key.
“We provide the basic ingredients for renewable energy
production,” said Victor Garlington, managing partner
at BioEconomy Solutions. “We all have backgrounds
in farming and renewable energy production, and we
have experience in biofuel production. There’s a gap
in the market, so we are working toward producing
a regenerative and sustainable farming model. Our
overall goal is to supply to biofuel producers that are
trying to fulfill these emissions mandates in over 60
countries around the world.”
The new renewable diesel plant will help BioEconomy
accomplish these goals.
An Unexpected Source
“What we’re doing is utilizing existing farms and
transitioning them toward raising sustainable non-food
crops suitable as feedstock for biofuels and renewable
diesel,” said Garlington.
“BioEconomy Solutions are probably the least real
estate-centric people we’ve dealt with,” said Kirby. “But
they know their industry and the global impact. They
really have their finger on how the market has evolved
in regard to renewable fuels. We listened to what they
had to say, and they know exactly what they need to do
for production down to the last acre. They have a great
business plan and are going to license a lot of farmers.”
While there are multiple feed stocks already in use for
biodiesel and renewable fuels–such as corn, soybeans
and palm oil–BioEconomy Solutions plans to use
tiger nuts, also known as chufa, as its sustainable
agricultural crop source and it will license farmers in
and outside of South Carolina.
“There was a big debate in the early 2000s about whether
using food crops for fuel makes the cost of consumer
food products go up by decreasing supplies. This ‘food
vs. fuel’ debate actually hurt biofuel production levels
in the U.S. and elsewhere around the world,” said
Garlington. “On the environmental level, the European
Union has actually deemed palm oil an unsustainable
source because of the deforestation that happens. That
has created a huge gap in the market because over
50 percent of biofuels in the [European Union] were
derived from palm oils.”
Pain is what drives innovation, according to Garlington.
Chufa does not compete with other food crops and
therefore offers a more sustainable farming model, so
it made sense to use it as a biofuel source.
The renewable diesel plant in South Carolina will
extract oil from chufa that is farmed and shipped to the
plant. From there, the extracted oil will be sent to the
European Union and the United Kingdom, where it will
be used to create biodiesel and renewable fuel.
The Land of Opportunity
“What I envision for IMPACT Carolina is to bring new
technologies into these zones,” said Kirby. “This is
a great tool to let the communities see what can be
done when applying new technology to old businesses,
such as agriculture. Companies such as BioEconomy
Solutions will drive new businesses to the community
and create economic multipliers within the region.”
Georgetown had a population of more than 8,000,
according to 2018 estimates from the United States
Census Bureau, and Georgetown had a poverty rate
of 34.1 percent and a median household income of
$30,972. According to the same estimates, the median
income for South Carolina in 2018 was $51,015 and the
poverty rate was 15.3 percent.
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3. continued from page 2
“One of the things that North Carolina and South
Carolina have is land,” said Kirby. “This was once home
to agricultural communities and was where tobacco
was grown for a long time. Now, the textile industry
has lapsed and we’re seeing a lot of that land converted
into wind or solar farms or other renewable industries.”
“We’re going to put many farmers to work,” said
Garlington. “There will be jobs created to grow, harvest
and process the chufa, then jobs to ship it to the
extraction plant in Georgetown. Finally, there will be
around 200 direct jobs for people at the extraction plant
to extract, prepare and ship the end product, chufa oil.
This is a regenerative agricultural to renewable energy
process. We want investors to know that we are creating
sustainable, long-term projects for renewable fuels, for
which there is a huge and growing global demand.”;
This article first appeared in the June 2020 issue of the Novogradac Journal of Tax Credits.
© Novogradac 2020 - All Rights Reserved
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4. EDITORIAL BOARD
PUBLISHER
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COPY
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Albert Rex
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ART
CREATIVE DIRECTOR CARTOGRAPHER
Alexandra Louie David R. Grubman
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2020 All rights reserved.
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