Green project wins award for Highland drinks giant and bio-waste business

Clearfleau and Diageo Scotland received the prestigious Best Project honour at the 2013 Scottish Green Energy Awards, organised by Scottish Renewables.
 
Their innovative scheme, at the Dailuaine Distillery near Charlestown-of-Aberlour, Moray, uses anaerobic digestion to extract energy from whisky by-products such as ‘pot ale’.
 
Richard Gueterbock, Marketing Director at Clearfleau, said the company was “surprised and delighted” to win the Project Award with Diageo Scotland.
 
He continued: “The Dailuaine project is a great example of anaerobic digestion on an industrial site – converting co-products into green energy for use in the distillery.
 
“As an emerging British company we look forward to delivering more Scottish projects in the food and drink sector and expect to be employing more people in Scotland in 2014.”
 
The head of Scotland’s European Marine Energy Centre and a groundbreaking local authority were also among those honoured at the event, held at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh and hosted by comedian and BBC Radio Scotland presenter Fred MacAulay.
 
Fife Council – which has encouraged the construction of the world's largest and most powerful offshore wind turbine in the coastal town of Methil – received the prestigious Public Sector Initiative Award at the ceremony, which was sponsored by RWE npower renewables.
 
Neil Kermode, Managing Director of the European Marine Energy Centre, picked up Outstanding Contribution to the industry for his work promoting wave and tidal energy and helping Orkney, where the centre is based, earn the nickname of the ‘Energy Islands’.
 
Others celebrating at the ceremony, , included FoundOcean, whose innovative offshore grout boosted the business from an income of zero to £12.9 million in just three years, and the locally-owned Neilston Community Wind Farm.
 
Niall Stuart, Chief Executive of Scottish Renewables, said: “This year’s Scottish Green Energy Awards were our most competitive ever, and with good reason. The strength of the industry in Scotland was reflected in the calibre of nominations which we received for the awards, and the diversity of the shortlist showed just how important the renewables sector is increasingly becoming in providing employment and investment across the country.
 
“Our congratulations go out to Clearfleau and Diageo Scotland, whose strong entries and subsequent successes shows they are just the kind of organisations Scotland’s renewables sector needs in order to continue to flourish.”
 
Fife Council’s dedication to renewables as an economic recovery mechanism has extended from the authority’s Renewable Energy Routemap – a Scots first – to the Fife Renewables Innovation Centre, Methil, which is now home to a 7MW (megawatt) offshore test turbine developed by South Korean electronics giant Samsung.
 
The Neilston project, a 10MW, four-turbine wind farm in the East Renfrewshire town, is 28% owned by local people. Its operation will ensure a 20-year income stream to fulfil plans laid down in the community’s 2009 Town Charter.
                                     
FoundOcean’s spectacular success was sealed with the Scottish Green Energy Business Growth Award. The Livingston business shattered a monopoly by developing an alternative cement for offshore installations, driving the business to a 38% market share in 36 months and boosting staff numbers from 39 to 134 since January 2010.
  
SSE’s Open4Business Highlands and Islands Portal was awarded the Contribution to Supply Chain Development Award for a procurement system which has attracted 800 businesses and awarded £2 million of contracts.
 
Fergus Ewing MSP was named Best Politician for his commitment to renewables, while Neil Evans, environment correspondent at Holyrood magazine, was named Best Journalist for his work covering many aspects of the industry in Scotland.

A new award, in honour of the late Scots solar pioneer Kerr MacGregor, was won by Glasgow company John Gilbert Architects for their work on the Duneland Ecovillage co-housing cluster in Findhorn, Moray, which delivers affordable heat through solar and heat pump technologies.
 
Dumfries & Galloway Housing Partnership – whose installation of 1,100 air-source heat pumps is the largest renewables commitment from any social landlord in Scotland – won the Contribution to Sustainable Development Award for their efforts.
 
C Speed’s LightWave Radar won the Best Innovation Award for overcoming challenges around radar systems and wind farms, and Energy Skills Partnership took home the hotly-contested Contribution to Skills & Training Award for, among other things, their work with the nascent Wind and Marine Training Network.