The GlenAllachie has been awarded a grant from the Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (SIETF) to install technology that will improve its distillery's energy efficiency.

The Speyside distillery is proposing to install a mechanical vapour recompression (MVR) system, which will capture waste heat from its still house (that would otherwise be lost to the environment) and re-route it back to the stills. 

The new system is expected to cut GlenAllachie's energy demand by 50 per cent, as roughly 70 per cent of its current energy usage comes from powering its four pot stills.

It will also support the distillery's move away from natural gas to greener energy sources; the distillery already produces biogas from its by-products, and the MVR system itself will be powered by 134 solar panels, to be installed in a neighbouring field. GlenAllachie is also working with Highlands and Islands Enterprise to improve the controls and efficiency of its existing boiler.

To enable the installation of the MVR system, energy provider SSE is upgrading local infrastructure and installing a larger transformer. 

The GlenAllachie’s operations director Richard Beattie said: “We’re thrilled at the news of our successful grant application for a project that will help us as an SME [small- to medium-sized enterprise] to significantly boost our sustainability credentials. We are acutely aware of the climate crisis and strive to punch above our weight within the Scotch whisky industry to decarbonise our processes.

“Green technology tends to be very expensive during the initial phases of development. It can, therefore, often prevent smaller, independent firms from installing the equipment required to achieve their green ambitions. This cash injection from the SIETF, backed by the Scottish government, is vital to facilitate such a move.

GlenAllachie has received support on the project from engineering company Briggs of Burton, which is also consulting on the Ardgowan Distillery currently being built at Inverkip.