New Macallan distillery to be green powered

The Macallan Scotch whisky’s new £100 million Speyside distillery will be predominantly heated by green energy under a new project.

The Macallan’s new £100m distillery will receive 90% of its steam power from a new green energy plant

The £74m Combined Heat and Power plant in Craigellachie, Speyside, will provide 90% of the steam used in the distillery’s processes, allowing it to cut carbon emissions.

With £26m raised by John Laing and the UK Green Investment Bank, alongside £48m debt to be raised from the bond market, the project will replace natural gas with biomass, allowing it to save the amount of energy equivalent to taking 18,000 cars off the road.

Developed by Estover Energy, an Edinburgh and London based company which specialises in developing biomass projects, the plant will be fuelled with sustainable forestry by-product sourced from the local area.

“The Macallan is delighted to have received planning permission for our new distillery from The Moray Council, which in turn has enabled the Estover project to move forward,” said Graham MacWilliam, general manager of distillation at The Macallan.

“The new distillery, which will benefit from the heat generated, is creating further employment opportunities through the commencement of this project in addition to delivering environmental and economic benefits.”

The project will also power more than 20,000 homes and create 123 jobs during construction.

Plans for The Macallan’s new distillery and visitors’ centre were approved earlier this month, allowing the brand to significantly increase production capacity.