This week marks the one-year anniversary of the city of Atlanta’s first and still-only state-of-the-art retail biodiesel station. This pioneering project, a collaboration between the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and Clean Energy Biofuels, is a model for truly sustainable biodiesel production in Georgia and throughout the country.

“Our biodiesel is the only fuel in the country produced using 100 percent renewable solar electricity,” said McKay Johnson, president and co-founder of Down to Earth Energy and CEB. “Our fuel is also entirely sourced from local restaurants’ waste oil, unlike most fuel that is grown in the Midwest or imported from overseas, so our product actually benefits our regional economy.” View a video about the production and sales of Down to Earth Energy’s biodiesel here. 

Over the past year, this station has provided fuel to a wide variety of drivers that range from local residents to cross-country travelers, such as Woody Harrelson and New Belgium Brewing Company’s Tour de Fat. In just one year, the fuel sold by this retail station has reduced oil dependence and prevented more than 400,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the air, reducing the impacts of hundreds of cars and trucks on the road today.

“Clean Energy Biofuels’ biodiesel meets the ASTM standard, ensuring quality and consistency that rivals conventional diesel,” said Anne Blair, program director SACE’s clean fuels and bioenergy programs. “However, our biodiesel produces far less toxic emissions than conventional diesel, which means better air quality in our urban area, which helps to reduce asthma, and makes biodiesel safer to store, handle and clean up.”

The biodiesel fueling station is also part of the U.S. DOE’s I-75 Green Corridor Project that is creating the longest alternative fuels corridor in the U.S.—all 1,786 miles of I-75. Once completed later this year, it will be the longest biofuels corridor in the country, traversing six states and cutting through the core of the U.S. from Florida to Michigan.

Founded in 1985, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy is a nonprofit organization that promotes responsible energy choices that create global warming solutions and ensure clean, safe, and healthy communities throughout the Southeast.