Tipperary Boutique Distillery will become solar-powered by midsummer with the installation of new solar panels at its site in Cahir, Co Tipperary, in what is understood to be an Irish first.
The distillery, which estimates that it will be able to save up to €13,000 per year in energy bills, said its position in Ireland’s Golden Vale allows it to take advantage of long hours of sunshine.
Jennifer Nickerson, managing director and co-founder of Tipperary Boutique Distillery, said its €43,000 investment in the panels would take less than five years to pay off.
Energy efficiency
“Adjustments to our production schedule such as taking advantage of sunlight at weekends, early mornings and late summer evenings will allow us to improve our energy efficiency and save money from the get-go,” she said.
“This is a vast improvement from last winter when massive energy bill hikes saw us working literally through the night to try to make small savings on our distillations. Our energy bills were easily €10,000 every second month at the height of the energy crisis.”
Why do some shareholders in the Republic's largest private residential landlord feel shortchanged?
The installation of these solar panels is the latest self-sufficiency measure taken by the distillery, which was founded in 2014 by Ms Nickerson, a chartered accountant, together with her father Stuart Nickerson, a master distiller, and her husband Liam Ahearn.
Barley used in the distillation of their whiskey is grown and harvested by Mr Ahearn, a sixth-generation barley farmer whose land at Ballindoney became the site for the distillery. Water, which flows naturally from the land on the farm, is used in the production of their whiskey, giving it extra provenance or “terroir” status. Co-products — draff and pot ale/spent lees — can be fed to neighbouring livestock or spread to land.
‘More discerning’
“The global demand for Irish whiskey remains strong with Asian and European markets continuing to be the key export market for our whiskeys, accounting for some 70 per cent of our business,” said Ms Nickerson.
“Globally consumers are becoming more discerning in their choice of drinks, particularly whiskey with a trend towards drinking ‘less but better’,” she said.
Sustainability is another “key factor” influencing consumers’ choices, she added, and is “more than a trend”.
