The Panda Group announced that it too plans to build a $120-million, 100-million-gallon per year fuel ethanol plant in Hereford, Texas.

It joins the White Energy group, which also just announced plans for a 100-million-gallon per year ethanol plant in Hereford, and a smaller 30-million-gallon per year competitor to the north in Dumas. (Earlier post.)

The Panda plant will use corn and grain sorghum (milo) as its feedstock. Rather than use natural gas to power the plant, Panda will convert cattle manure and cotton gin waste to bio-gas. The company claims a net energy savings of 1,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by taking this approach.

Headquartered in Dallas, Texas (as is the parent of rival White Energy) the Panda Group is a privately-held company that has built over 9,000 MW of electric generation capacity at a cost of $5 billion. Panda is currently developing fuel ethanol plants, biomass electric generating facilities, biodiesel plants and is also actively working on next-generation clean coal projects throughout the United States.