A Fife distillery will create new jobs after securing a six-figure investment in switching to green hydrogen.
InchDairnie Distillery in Glenrothes will add five staff to its 22-strong workforce after winning £600,000 funding from the UK Government.
The Fife distillery, which launched in 2015, is one of 11 projects to have won backing to produce green hydrogen.
The new projects across the UK – including three in Scotland – will invest around £400 million over the next three years, growing the UK’s green economy.
Hydrogen switch ‘a big step’ for InchDairnie
InchDairnie plans to run a boiler on 100% hydrogen for use in their distilling process.
Managing director Ian Palmer estimates the switch will cut his business’ carbon footprint by more than a third.
He said: “We’re a new distillery and sensible and rational use of resources is key. Switching to green hydrogen is a big step. It will make a huge difference to our carbon footprint.
“We’ve done a carbon footprint calculation and by switching to green hydrogen we wipe out 35% of our carbon footprint. That is a big step for us.”
Mr Palmer said one of the major challenges would be explaining the changes to customers.
He added work on reducing the carbon footprint around the barley used in InchDairnie’s whisky was a long-term project.
Mr Palmer said: “It’s a challenge for us to get your average whisky drinker to understand the whisky in their bottle was made using green hydrogen.
“We’re doing a lot of work with the barley, which is grown here in Fife.
“The growing of barley and the nitrogen used is the largest element of our carbon footprint, but to reduce that is a really long-term plan.
“Jumping into green hydrogen gives us an immediate effect and we’ll be ready to run on that from the end of January.”
Sustainability an increasing factor in purchases
He said changing consumer attitudes towards sustainability were one reason the distillery had opted to make the switch now.
Mr Palmer said the first whisky to be produced using green hydrogen would not be on sale for another 15 years.
InchDairnie is currently maturing thousands of barrels of single malt. The distillery launched its first rye whisky for £110 a bottle earlier this year.
“It’s about being a low carbon product to be able to sell into those consumers who believe that is the right thing to do,” he said.
“Whisky is purchased from disposable income and there’s huge amounts of decision making processes around that.
“Sustainability is becoming one of the questions in that process. We think that is going to get bigger but we want to be ahead of the game.”
It also comes as part of an £18m investment in a new bonded warehouse.
Investment ‘really significant’ for Fife
The investment was announced by UK government minister for energy security and net zero Claire Coutinho.
She visited InchDairnie on Thursday morning where she met with Mr Palmer and toured the facility.
Ms Coutinho said it was “really significant” news for Fife.
She added: “Hydrogen presents a massive economic opportunity for the UK, unlocking over 12,000 jobs and up to £11 billion of investment by 2030.
“Today’s announcement represents the largest number of commercial scale green hydrogen production projects announced at once anywhere in Europe.
“These 11 major new hydrogen projects across the UK will create over 700 jobs and deliver new opportunities from Plymouth in England to Cromarty in Scotland.”
Conversation