Ground was ceremoniously broken on Wednesday on a $170 million ethanol plant being built in Mitchell County, GA, by First United Ethanol LLC.

The plant is expected to produce 100 million gallons of ethanol per year from 36 million bushels of corn.  Ethanol production is expected to begin in spring 2008, said First United Ethanol LLC, which will buy corn from Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, as not enough corn is grown in Georgia to satisfy the plant’s needs.  
 
 In the U.S., 110 ethanol plants are currently in operation, with a total annual production capacity of more than 5.3 billion gallons, according to the RFA, which also says that 79 additional projects currently under construction would add almost 6 billion gallons of production capacity when completed.