Press release

Distilleries ready to raise a toast and go green

12 distilleries across Scotland and 5 in England can now bid for further grants up to £3 million, totalling almost £9 million.

From:
Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, The Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP, and Iain Stewart MP
Published
20 March 2021
  • nearly £9 million government funding to help the UK’s world-famous distilleries get into the spirit of going green, cutting emissions and supporting green jobs
  • funding will enable distilleries to cut carbon emissions by half a million tonnes every year – equivalent to the annual carbon dioxide emissions of Norwich
  • innovative energy projects will allow UK to build back greener from the pandemic and help towards ending contribution to climate change by 2050

World-renowned whisky and spirit producers from Orkney to Cornwall are set to toast an almost £9 million cash boost announced by the government today (Saturday, 20 March) that will drive forward plans to create low-carbon green distilleries.

Having already received collective funding of more than £1 million to kick-start green innovation projects,12 distilleries across Scotland and 5 in England can now bid for further grants of up to £3 million, totalling almost £9 million.

The grants will support successful distilleries to accelerate projects that decarbonise their production processes, which typically rely on fossil fuels, helping prevent pollution equivalent to the annual carbon dioxide emissions of Norwich.

In the first phase of funding, distilleries received up to £75,000, helping them boost decarbonisation research and development, with schemes including the use of hydrogen and biofuel boilers and geothermal energy in their production processes.

Projects that have already received funding include the Uist Distilling Company on the Isle of South Uist using low-carbon hydrogen as a heat source, Bruichladdich Distillery developing a boiler system that emits no greenhouse gases or pollutants on the isle of Islay and Orkney’s Highland Park Distillery using stored energy from green renewable sources that can be converted into heat on demand.

Energy Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said:

From whisky and gin to rum and vodka, the UK’s distilleries are famous around the world for their innovation, and it is great to see them use this to get into the spirit of going green.

The funding announced today will support one of our most iconic industries to go further and faster in cutting their carbon emissions and build back greener – something we can all raise a toast to.

In 2019, the UK distilleries industry grew by 20%, highlighting the opportunity for the sector to be at the heart of the UK’s green and resilient recovery from coronavirus.

The production of whisky directly produced around 530,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2018, with the majority of these emissions coming from the generation of heat for the distillation process. This accounts for more than 80% of the distillation industry’s fuel consumption – almost all of which is currently from fossil fuels.

The Scotch whisky industry supports 40,000 jobs across the UK, with more than 10,000 people directly employed in Scotland.

With 7,000 of these jobs in rural Scottish areas, today’s funding will drive forward support for low-carbon innovation in some geographically remote parts of the UK, creating more jobs and skills and providing opportunities for distilleries to develop their fuel transportation and storage technologies.

UK Government Minister for Scotland, Iain Stewart said:

Right across the country, from Edinburgh to Orkney, it’s wonderful to see so many Scottish distilleries moving forward to the next stage of this competition, allowing them to bid for a share of £8.9 million UK government funding.

This funding will support local businesses to cut carbon emissions and create sustainable jobs, helping us build back greener as we prepare to host COP26 in Scotland later this year.

Funding for the Green Distilleries competition is part of the £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio which aims to accelerate the commercialisation of innovative low-carbon technologies, systems and processes in the power, buildings and industrial sectors.

The announcement is another example of government commitment to build back greener and work towards the UK’s goal of eliminating its contribution to climate change by 2050 and comes in addition to the ambitious green targets announced in the Prime Minister’s Ten point plan and the Energy white paper.

Notes to editors

  • the Green Distilleries competition supports the government’s approach for a clean, resilient recovery across the UK to support the creation of new jobs in the distillery sector
  • in the 2020 Budget, £10 million was allocated to R&D to help decarbonise UK distilleries
  • the second phase of the competition is now open - read more details
  • the funding available in the second phase of the Green Distilleries competition will support between 3 and 5 of the demonstration projects

List of successful phase 1 distilleries

  1. Protium Green Solutions Limited (£73,818), lead in London with a distillery partner in Islay. Using a low emission hydrogen boiler.

  2. Locogen Ltd (£43,325), Edinburgh. Switching a distillery from fuel oil to hydrogen burners.

  3. Protium Energy Limited (£57,464), Aberdeen. A high temperature heat store.

  4. Cornish Geothermal Distillery Company (£75,000), Truro. Creating a geothermal distillery.

  5. European Marine Energy Centre (£58,781), Orkney Islands. Assessing technology pathways to facilitate green hydrogen.

  6. Supercritical Solutions Ltd (£53,000), lead in Horsham with a distillery partner in Glasgow. Electrolysers to enable fuel switching to zero emission sources.

  7. The Uist Distilling Company Ltd (£44,572), The Isle of South Uist. Combination of a hydrogen burner and indirect heating of a thermal oil rather than steam.

  8. Colorado Construction and Engineering Ltd (£73,636.80), Edinburgh. Hydrogen and dual hydrogen / biofuel burners for distilleries.

  9. Vytok Ltd (£57,688.00), London. Heat pumps with water as the working fluid.

  10. The Uist Distilling Company Ltd (£40,539.23), The Isle of South Uist. A high temperature heat store that would allow a distillery to be run purely on electricity.

  11. John Fergus & Co Ltd (£71,812.55), Glenrothes. The use of hydrogen on site to decarbonise process heat.

  12. The Edrington Group Ltd (£56,930.00), Glasgow. An innovative stillhouse Condenser Hot Water Recovery System.

  13. St Andrews Brewers Limited (£51,547.00), Glasgow. A combination of heat pumps, green hydrogen and biomass.

  14. Bennamann Ltd (£46,620.11), Cornwall. Use of fugitive methane as fuel.

  15. Sunamp Ltd (£61,412.50), Edinburgh. A large-scale phase change material thermal store.

  16. Environmental Resources Management Limited (£68,951.00), London. Liquid organic hydrogen carriers.

  17. Colorado Construction and Engineering Ltd (£74,768.10), Edinburgh. The conversion of waste distillery draff and pot ale into a gasification-gas.

Read further details about the successful phase 1 distilleries.

Published 20 March 2021

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