UK malting site to decarbonise with curtailed wind power, local biomass

Simpsons Malt Ltd last week unveiled a renewable energy project that will reduce carbon emissions at the UK’s largest malting site by around 80%.

The company has partnered with AMP Clean Energy, which will finance, develop and operate a GBP-45-million (USD 57.6m/EUR 52.8m) low-carbon energy centre located next to Simpsons Malt’s Tweed Valley Maltings headquarters.

The project, set to be completed next summer, will consist of a 12-MW electric boiler powered by curtailed wind energy, and three 6-MW biomass boilers that will use locally-sourced, low-grade woodchip. It will also contribute to the Scotch whisky sector’s emissions reduction objectives.

“This is the first project of a kind in the UK and the first time a high-voltage electric boiler will decarbonise an industrial heat process. It could be replicated across other industries,” said AMP Clean Energy chief executive Mark Tarry.

Steven Rowley, Operations Director at Simpsons Malt Ltd remarked that as the malt produced at Tweed Valley Maltings will have a much lower carbon footprint, this will help the company’s distilling industry customers advance their own sustainability objectives.

(GBP 1 = USD 1.281/EUR 1.173)

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