Pacific Ethanol Completes Solar Power Project at Madera Ethanol Plant

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Aug. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (NASDAQ: PEIX), announced today the completion of a 5-megawatt solar power system at its 40 million gallon capacity per year ethanol plant in Madera, California. The system is online and generating power. Initial operations are at 3.5 megawatts and will increase to 5 megawatts upon completion of PG&E upgrades to the adjacent substation, which are expected in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Neil Koehler, Pacific Ethanol’s president and CEO, stated: “We are very excited to be online generating electricity with solar power at our Madera, California facility. This is the first ever large-scale solar power system installed at an ethanol production plant in the United States. This system will lower our carbon score and is expected to reduce our utility costs by approximately $1 million annually when operating at full capacity.”

About Pacific Ethanol, Inc.
Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (PEIX) is a leading producer and marketer of low-carbon renewable fuels and high-quality alcohol products in the United States. Pacific Ethanol owns and operates nine production facilities, four in the Western states of California, Oregon and Idaho, and five in the Midwestern states of Illinois and Nebraska. The plants have a combined production capacity of 605 million gallons per year, produce over three million tons per year of ethanol co-products – on a dry matter basis – such as wet and dry distillers grains, wet and dry corn gluten feed, condensed distillers solubles, corn gluten meal, corn germ, corn oil, distillers yeast and CO2. Pacific Ethanol markets and distributes fuel-grade ethanol, high-quality alcohol products and co-products domestically and internationally. Pacific Ethanol’s subsidiary, Kinergy Marketing LLC, markets all ethanol and alcohol products for Pacific Ethanol’s plants as well as for third parties, approaching one billion gallons of ethanol marketed annually based on historical volumes. Pacific Ethanol’s subsidiary, Pacific Ag. Products LLC, markets wet and dry distillers grains. For more information please visit www.pacificethanol.com.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
Statements and information contained in this communication that refer to or include the Pacific Ethanol’s estimated or anticipated future results or other non-historical expressions of fact are forward-looking statements that reflect Pacific Ethanol’s current perspective of existing trends and information as of the date of the communication. Forward looking statements generally will be accompanied by words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “plan,” “could,” “should,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “outlook,” “guidance,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “will,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” or other similar words, phrases or expressions. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, Pacific Ethanol’s ability to operate its solar power system at full capacity; the timing of upgrades to the adjacent substation; the system’s effects on Pacific Ethanol’s carbon score; and the system’s effects on Pacific Ethanol’s utility costs. It is important to note that Pacific Ethanol’s plans, objectives, expectations and intentions are not predictions of actual performance. Actual results may differ materially from Pacific Ethanol’s current expectations depending upon a number of factors affecting Pacific Ethanol, including, among other things, adverse economic and market conditions, the inherent uncertainty associated with financial and other projections; the risks and uncertainties normally incident to the operation of power generation systems; changes in generally accepted accounting principles; changes in laws, regulations and governmental policies; and other events, factors and risks previously and from time to time disclosed in Pacific Ethanol’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including, specifically, those factors set forth in the “Risk Factors” section contained in Pacific Ethanol’s Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 10, 2018.

Released August 7, 2018