MADRID, Spain --- Abengoa, an energy company based in Spain, has signed a contract with the U.S. Energy Department to build a biomass ethanol plant in Hugoton, Kan. According to a Reuters report, the contract is worth $38 million. Next door to the facility will be a conventional ethanol plant producing fuel from grains. The total investment adds up to more than $300 million. The development deal is part of a $76 million contract that the Department of Energy awarded in February. Abengoa's subsidiary, Abengoa Bioenergia, has produced ethanol from wood pulp at a pilot plant in York, Neb., as part of a $35 million research and development contract signed with the Energy Department in 2003.