URBANDALE, Iowa - The Washington biodiesel plant will soon be under construction. After only one week of fundraising, Iowa Renewable Energy (IRE) has raised over $19.5 million from investors. The money will be used to build the 30 million gallon-per-year biodiesel production facility.

“We are very excited and pleased that the drive has been completed,” says Mike Bohannan of Washington, Iowa, president of IRE. “We are happy to be able to bring an opportunity like this to southeast Iowa.”

IRE plans to break ground in early June and construction is expected to be complete by June 2007.

According to a recent study by the Iowa Soybean Association (ISA), soy biodiesel will bring more than $1.3 billion in additional income to the state of Iowa by the year 2010. Soy biodiesel production will also create 15,000 new jobs statewide.

“This is a great opportunity for investors in southeast Iowa,” says John Heisdorffer of Keota, IRE board member and ISA district director. “It’s also a great economic opportunity for the town of Washington, which has lost several large businesses in the last few years. And the biodiesel plant will give nearly 30 new jobs to the area.”

Biodiesel use is rapidly growing across the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. More than 600 fleets use biodiesel, including the U.S. Military, NASA, Yellowstone National Park, local governments and hundreds of school districts