6th February, 2014 by Amy Hopkins

Glenfiddich Scotch whisky has been given the green light to build an energy plant at its Dufftown distillery in order to turn whisky waste into renewable power.

The Glenfiddich Distillery’s anaerobic digestion energy plant will use spent malted barley and pot ale, byproducts of the distilling process, to generate gas and electricity.

To achieve this, the whisky byproducts will be used to produce a biogas that can either be injected into the national gas network, or processed by a number of gas engines to generate electricity.

Heat and steam created by the plant could also be used for the distillery processes on site.

The Speyside distillery’s local authority, Moray Council, approved the plans on Tuesday 6 February.

As reported in STV News, councillor Douglas Ross, chair of the council’s planning and regulatory services committee, 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.”