ICE CREAM manufacturers Mackie’s of Scotland is making its popular product by using windmill power.

Staff gathered on an Aberdeenshire hilltop to watch cranes haul a 45-metre turbine with its 25-metre blades into place yesterday.

Mac Mackie said, “We are continually looking for different ways to use the resource of our farm and wind is a resource which is free—and abundant!

“The windmill will supply enough power for our whole business, including the ice cream dairy. I believe that makes us the country’s first renewable energy ice cream.”

Mackie’s produces six million litres of ice cream a year. The company will now add a windmill icon to its tubs to show that the ice cream is made with renewable energy.

The company’s annual electricity bill is around £120,000 and it now hopes to recover the £750,000 investment in the turbine over the next four to five years.

Electricity supply is at a critical point for Mackie’s, who make all their ice cream on the farm base.

“We operate our business from our countryside home and have managed to secure a market throughout the UK and abroad,” said Mr Mackie.

“We need to be innovative and plan further expansion in order to survive in a very competitive market.

“We are now at the threshold of our maximum electricity supply from the national grid and have been quoted costs of up to £600,000 to upgrade our local connection.

“Our further growth could now be constrained by our electricity supply. For example, we have just ordered a new ice cube machine and had to make careful calculations on the energy supply first.

“Electricity supply to local areas will have to be improved in order to ensure the sustainability of employment in rural areas like ours.”

Any surplus energy has been sold to Good Energy, a supplier of renewable electricity to homes and firms throughout the country.

Alex Vowles, commercial manager for Good Energy, said Mackie’s initiative would encourage other businesses to research ways they can cut their pollution.