Work starts on Scots biomass plant

Construction of a £60m biomass combined heat and power plant has got under way this week.

The plant at Rothes in Speyside, Scotland, will use mainly Scotch whisky distillery by-products to generate 7.2MW of electricity, plus animal feed in the form of pot ale syrup.

It has been set up by a consortium including The Combination of Rothes Distillers, Helius Energy and Rabo Project Equity.

It is estimated the plant will save 46,642t of carbon dioxide emissions when operational in 2013.

The Scottish Government has pledged to produce all of Scotland’s electricity through renewables by 2020.