MORAY councillors today approved plans for a green energy plant using waste from one of Speyside’s leading distilleries.
The anaerobic digestion facility at the Glenfiddich
Distillery in Dufftown will use spent malted barley and pot ale from the
distilling process to produce biogas which will either be injected into
the national gas network, or processed by a number of gas engines to generate electricity.
The
new plant at the distillery, owned by William Grant and Sons, will also
be used to provide heat and steam for the distillery processes on site.
The
facility will be built in the Fiddich valley, north of Dufftown, on a
1.6 hectare site between the Glenfiddich Distillery and the disused
Parkmore Distillery.
Neal MacPherson, the council’s Principal
Planning Officer, told councillors: “This proposal would see the re-use
of by products from the distillation process that would provide and
re-use waste and heat, increasing efficiency of the processes at
Glenfiddich Distillery, create approximately four new jobs and also
provide either electricity or gas that would feed back into the national grid or gas network.”
Committee
chairman Councillor Douglas Ross said: “This proposed development has
been well managed by the applicant as can be seen by the fact that there
were no objections to the plans. They have worked with the council to
ensure this energy plant can be approved and built as quickly as
possible to start generating electricity from this anaerobic digestion
facility.”
He added: “The position of the plant was also
sympathetic to the local area and the fact that it will be barely
visible to the majority of passers-by is an added bonus given its
location near to Dufftown.”
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