OMAHA — Green Plains Renewable Energy, Inc. said its wholly-owned subsidiary, Green Plains Grain Co., has agreed to acquire the grain elevator assets of KW Carter Company d/b/a JW Grain located in St. Edward, Neb. JW Grain has 1.9 million bus of state-licensed grain storage and has the capability to load 25-car unit trains. The acquisition is expected to be completed within 30 days.

Green Plains also said it plans to expand the on-site grain storage capacity by up to 1 million bus, which is expected to be completed before the 2012 harvest.

“We continue to seek out opportunities to expand our agribusiness segment that can bring additional scale to our operations,” said Todd Becker, president and chief executive officer. “Acquiring facilities to increase our grain storage and merchandising capabilities is an important part of our diversification strategy going forward. Once this acquisition and expansion is completed, Green Plains will have 40 million bus of grain storage capacity at 15 elevator locations in Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and Tennessee.”

Green Plains Renewable Energy, Inc. is North America’s fourth largest ethanol producer. The company markets and distributes approximately 1 billion gallons of renewable motor fuel on an annual basis, including 740 million gallons of expected production from the company’s nine ethanol plants located throughout the United States. The company also owns and operates grain handling and storage assets and provides complementary agronomy services to local grain producers through its agribusiness segment.