OAK RIDGE NORTH, Texas -- Chicken fat and a $3.5 million investment are behind a breakthrough in the way Texans heat, cool and light their homes and offices.

Using the slimy, light-colored tallow as the source for clean-burning biodiesel, Biofuels Power Corporation launched three, 2,000-horsepower diesel engines a couple of weeks ago. They add a bit more energy to the massive grid that powers much of the Lone Star State.

Privately held Biofuels Power and others in the renewable energy business say the plant is the first of its kind to produce power for sale on the open market using only biodiesel. That's a petroleum-free alternative fuel made from plant oils like cotton seed and animal fat. In this case, it's chicken fat.

The nonprofit National Biodiesel Board says it knows of no other such plant running entirely on biodiesel, which can be used in any conventional diesel engine. Congressman Nick Lampson hails the fledgling company for its groundbreaking venture.

By year's end, The Woodlands-based Biofuels Power says it hopes to finish a second, larger biodiesel plant to produce power for the electric utility Entergy, which has customers in parts of Southeast Texas and Louisiana.

Biofuels are seen as a way to reduce harmful emissions and wean Americans and the rest of the world off fossil fuels.