Energy Efficiency
Announcements prior to September 2017, including this announcement, occurred under previous ownership.
08 November 2013
(L-R: Geoff Jackson, CEO, Equitix; Ernest Kidney, Managing Director, Balcas; Robert Anderson CEO, Tomatin Distillery; Lord Smith of Kelvin, Chair, UK Green Investment Bank; Rt Hon Danny Alexander MP)
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 produces 100,000 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 provided Danny Alexander MP and Lord Smith of Kelvin, Chair of GIB, with an overview of the environmental and economic benefits of the new biomass fuelled steam boiler when they visited the distillery today.
The Rt Hon Danny Alexander
Member of Parliament for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey
Lord Smith of Kelvin
Chairman of GIB
Robert Anderson
Chief Executive of Tomatin Distillery
Ernest Kidney
Managing Director of Balcas
Media enquiries
For more information on Balcas and images of the visit / pictures of the boiler contact Julie McCabe or Brittany Breslin at Massive PR on 028 9024 0250 or 07801 989950.
For more information on Tomatin Distillery contact Jennifer Nicol, Marketing Manager on 01463 248 148