Tennessee is making significant advances in its farm-to-consumer alternative fuels strategy to stimulate economic investment and meet the state’s future energy needs.

Alternative fuel research – already under way at Tennessee’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the University of Tennessee (UT) – has led to scientists developing ethanol from switchgrass, a crop that can be grown virtually anywhere in the state.

Biomass crops like switchgrass represent significant new markets for Tennessee’s farmers and new economic opportunities for the state overall.

Tennessee’s challenge is being able to produce ethanol and biodiesel, another fuel alternative, in large enough volumes and at a price competitive with gasoline.

Tennessee is leading the charge in taking the state’s alternative fuels discoveries in the laboratory directly to the marketplace through a comprehensive strategy devoted to production, distribution and research.

To position Tennessee as a leader in the production of alternative fuels, the state commited $61 million toward research into improving the efficiency of ethanol made from cellulose, construction of a pilot cellulosic ethanol refinery, expansion of the state’s network of alternative fueling stations, and helping Tennessee farmers tap into farm-based fuel markets. Those efforts set the stage for the U.S. Department of Energy’s announcement in 2007 that Tennessee would be the site of one of three National Biofuels Research Centers with $125 million in federal funding.

Six state agencies – including the Department of Economic and Community Development (ECD) – set up grant and loan programs to stimulate investment and use of fuel alternatives in the state. The $3.5 million in grants and loans are devoted to three key areas: attracting investment in soybean crushing facilities to create local markets for Tennessee-grown soybeans and supply the oil needed to create biodiesel; helping governments and state-funded universities increase the use of alternative fuels in their fleets; and building a network of publicly accessible ethanol and biodiesel refueling stations along Tennessee’s major highways.