Northern Ireland company has a keen interest in the Whisky Industry

Imagine the delight of our Fermanagh & Omagh District Council partner to find a link between Fermanagh and the rich tradition of Scotch Whisky.

Our recent Partner meeting was hosted by University of Highlands and Islands and we were based in Inverness for a few days. Following two days of intense meetings, we escaped to the region for a few very interesting sites visits.  Examples of small scale renewable energy projects, including trips to a community owned wind energy turbine, a small distillery which aims to be the first community owned distillery relaunching an ancient whisky and a locally produced gin, all utilising green energy and a visit to a local brewery specialising in organic beers again produced using renewable energy sources.

Our last site visit was to the Tomatin Distillery, which in 2013 became the first Scottish distillery to install an environmentally efficient wood pellet fuelled steam boiler which is used in their production process.  The plant consists of a vertical shell nd tube boiler with a fixed grate that is coupled to twim 100m3 pellet silos with integrated loading , feeding and metering.  Fuelled by locally produced wood pellets, from the Balcas plant at Invergordon, this 4MW biomass system boiler solution has largely replaced their heavy fuel oil usage, significantly reducing the carbon emissions for this traditional distillery set in the heart of the Scottish Highlands.  This is in line with the Scottish Whisky Association’s industry-wide targets with the stated aim that by 2020, 20% of energy requirements will be derived from non-fossil fuels, rising to 80% by 2050.

We are very excited by the prospect of introducing our international partners to the home of Balcas at Ballycassidy on the outskirts of Enniskillen when we host the partner meeting in late 2017.