Bosses at Mackie’s of Scotland say a new £4.5 million-plus freezer can be “the final piece in the jigsaw” to the north-east ice-cream giant becoming self-sufficient in renewable energy.
They also hope the new system will make Mackie’s, which is based at Westertown Farm, near Rothienorman, Aberdeenshire, “the greenest company in Britain”.
Their latest project has started to take shape after a £2.05m grant from the Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme.
The Scottish Government support, part-funded by the 2014-2020 European Regional Development Fund programme, is matched by an investment of more than £2.5m by Mackie’s, which is targeting CO2 emission cuts of up to 80% and energy cost savings of 70-80%.
According to the firm, the new ammonia and water-powered system will be the first of its kind in Scotland and only the third in the UK when it is up and running later this year.
Managing director Mac Mackie said: “This freezer can be the final piece in the jigsaw to our farm becoming entirely self-sufficient in renewable energy.
“With our solar farm, wind turbines and existing biomass system powering 70% of our annual energy needs, the next stage was to look at ways of slashing our energy requirements.
“We first set out on the journey towards this refrigeration back in 2018.”