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The John Smith's brewery at Tadcaster

A NORTH Yorkshire brewing giant is to spend £12 million on going green by building a new energy-efficient plant as it celebrates its 250th anniversary.

The John Smith's plant, in Tadcaster, hopes to open the environmentally-friendly biomass facility - one of the first of its kind in the world - by the end of the year.

Scottish & Newcastle UK (S&NUK), which owns the site, has now started work on the plant - also being installed at its Royal Brewery in Manchester - which will create green energy by drying spent grain produced during the brewing process and help the company avoid being hit by rising fuel costs.

It will involve demolishing one of the Tadcaster factory's distribution buildings and the plant, once operational, will cut down on the number of journeys brewery vehicles make.

The energy-saving project comes as John Smith's celebrates 250 years of brewing in the town with a range of events and activities.

"These plants will give S&NUK an industry-leading solution to reducing our energy costs," said a spokesman.

"The plant works by drying our spent grain and using it as a fuel source to raise steam, which is then used to drive a turbine. Over the course of a year, this plant will supply nearly half our steam demand and most of our electricity demand, and we are also using it to reduce our exposure to power cuts.

"We will see a big reduction in our energy bills which will more than offset the amount of money we will lose by not selling our spent grain as cattle feed, and the project will result in fewer vehicle movements associated with biomass deliveries than we currently see with the removal of spent grain.

"Before demolition of the old secondary distribution building can begin, we will have to re-route all the services and beer mains which pass through the building. We're still developing plans as to how to do this with minimum interruption to normal operations, which is quite a challenge."

S&NUK said it could not yet confirm whether it any new jobs will be created at the site to take on the work created by the closure of its Berkshire Brewery in 2010 Meanwhile, plans to mark the 250th anniversary of John Smith's brewing in Tadcaster will include a series of commemorative ales and a search for 250 John Smith's to attend a cake-and-ale party at the brewery, while employees will also take part in the South Pennine Challenge in May to raise money for the John Smith's Lion Heart Fund and other charities.

Chris Jowsey, S&NUK John Smith's managing director, said: "We are inviting people throughout the country to join us and raise a glass to the product which has made the town famous all over the world."

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2:14pm Thursday 27th March 2008

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