Tomatin Distillery Reduces its Carbon Emissions by Over 80%
Tomatin Distillery, located 16 miles south of Inverness, has become the first Scottish distillery to install a new, state-of-the-art, sustainable biomass boiler. This new renewable energy boiler, displaces the distillery’s previous heavy-fuel oil usage and produces both heat and steam for the whisky making process.
The installation of the new biomass boiler as part of an Energy Supply Contract (ESCO) has immediately improved the distillery’s energy efficiency, cutting carbon emissions by 80% or over 4,000 tonnes CO2 each year, equivalent to taking 1,200 family cars off the road.
The ESCO was part-financed by the UK Green Investment Bank, through its fund manager Equitix, and Balcas. Balcas is the largest manufacturer of wood pellets in the UK with production sites in Northern Ireland and in Invergordon, Scotland, 35 miles north of the distillery. This plant alone produces100,000 tonnes of sustainable biomass pellets annually.
In cutting its carbon emissions by 80%, Tomatin Distillery is the first distillery in Scotland to achieve the Scotch Whisky Association’s target for 2050 – 37 years ahead of schedule.
Robert Anderson, chief executive of Tomatin Distillery and Ernest Kidney, managing director of Balcas recently provided Danny Alexander MP and Lord Smith of Kelvin, Chairman of GIB, with an overview of the environmental and economic benefits of the new biomass fuelled steam boiler.
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Pictured (L-R): Geoff Jackson, CEO of Equitix; Lord Smith of Kelvin, Chairman of GIB; and Ernest Kidney, Managing Director of Balcas.
