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Dewar’s Aberfeldy Distillery Going Green

May 21, 2014 – Dewar’s will take advantage of a new loan program from the UK’s Green Investment Bank to upgrade its Aberfeldy Distillery with new biomass-fueled boilers that will eliminate the distillery’s use of fuel oil. The GIB is making £5 million GBP ($8.4 million USD) available to distilleries to finance energy efficiency projects following last year’s successful investment at Tomatin Distillery. Tomatin is on track to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80% once the biomass boiler comes on line later this year, according to a GIB news release.

The Aberfeldy project will replace aging oil-fired boilers that generate steam to heat the stills with new boilers that are fueled by wood pellets produced by Balcas Limited in Invergordon using wood from sustainably-managed forests. The pellets burn more efficiently than fuel oil, allowing the distillery to reduce its energy costs as well as its carbon footprint. Balcas is an investor in the GIB’s loan fund, which is being managed by the investment firm Equitix. 50 percent of the loan funds come from the Green Investment Bank, with the remaining 50 percent from private sector investors.

Bacardi, the parent company of Dewar’s, has already installed a similar biomass-fueled boiler at its Bombay Sapphire gin distillery in Laverstoke Mill, England, and plans to upgrade a tequila distillery in Mexico later this year. GIB spokeswoman Ronit Wolfson said in an email to WhiskyCast that three more Scotch whisky distillery projects are expected to be announced in the coming months, but did not specify which distilleries or companies are considering the upgrades.

Links: Green Investment Bank | Dewar’s