THE Edinburgh-based Green Investment Bank (GIB) is financing an eco-friendly biomass boiler at Royal Brackla Distillery in Nairn, the fourth Scottish distillery to be helped by funding earmarked by the lender to boost energy efficiency in that type of business.

The bank, which was created by the UK government, said the new facility will replace the heavy fuel boilers currently in place at the distillery, which is run by John Dewar & Sons.

The project is set to be completed next year and the GIB said it would "reduce the distillery's energy costs and its greenhouse gas emissions, without requiring any up-front capital investment from the distillery".

It is also expected to be 50 per cent more energy-efficient than the present set-up, as well cutting greenhouse-gas emissions to the same extent as taking 2,265 cars off the road.

Funding will come from the £5 million made available by the bank, as announced in May, via its fund manager Equitix. Dewar's Aberfeldy distillery in Perthshire, Balmenach distillery in Speyside and Tomatin distillery near Inverness have already made use of the financing.

The GIB's chairman, Lord Smith of Kelvin, said he was delighted that the bank could help another distillery save money and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

"This is an investment to help one of our most iconic industries to modernise, become more efficient and reduce its carbon footprint," he added.

Royal Brackla, which is owned by Bacardi and was the first distillery to receive the Royal Warrant, said the new boiler will go towards its goal of cutting global greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent by 2017.

Operations director Iain Lochhead said: "The installation of the biomass boiler will mark a significant change in the environmental performance of the distillery as we are expecting an annual target reduction of some 5,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions."

In August the GIB sannounced that it was investing in a green Speyside power plant, providing energy to the Macallan distillery.