Helius Energy has announced that the Rothes renewable energy project, a joint development between Helius Energy and The Combination of Rothes Distillers, has received planning permission from the Moray Council.
According to Helius Energy, the approval will see the installation of a GreenSwitch biomass-fueled combined heat and power (CHP) plant at The Combination of Rothes Distillers’s (CoRD) existing site to the north of Rothes, UK.
The CHP unit will use a combination of distillery co-products and wood chips from sustainable sources to generate 7.2MW of electricity enough for 9,000 homes, which can be used on site or exported to the National Grid.
As part of the project, a new GreenFields plant will be built alongside the GreenSwitch CHP unit and will turn the liquid co-product of whisky production, known as pot ale, into a concentrated organic fertilizer for use by local farmers.
The plant, which represents an investment of around GBP35 million, is expected to take 18 months to 24 months to construct.
The Helius Group was established to install and operate biomass fired renewable electricity generation plants, which will help meet the power need from renewable fuels. These plants also help to overcome the issues of climate change associated with fossil fuels like coal and oil. The company said that it is developing both large (over 60MWe) and small modular (5-8MWe) biomass-powered electricity generation plants.