In December, I blogged about the upside of combined heat and power (CHP) plants. Now, in Scotland, one whiskymaker is using the tech to reduce its carbon lochprint. The spirit company, Combination of Rothes Distillers Limited (CoRD), and Helius Energy are jointly building a CHP facility with a side of fertilizer factory.

Called GreenSwitch, the modular CHP unit will employ biomass made from biproducts of the distilling process and sustainably-harvested wood chips. Right next door, the GreenFields plant will turn a liquid biproduct, called pot ale, into a concentrated organic fertilizer.

This £34 million project will take 18-24 months to ferment, at which point the GreenSwitch plant will produce 7.2 megawatts of electricty, enough to power 9,000 homes. Although still in the planning stages, the venture already won the Best Environmental Initiative Award from the Scottish Green Energy Awards last December.

It doesn't get much better than a story about good drink and green energy, but just for the record, I'm a bourbon man.

Photo Credit: Flickr user Kyle May