We love beer, but do we love beer made from solar power?

Beer has been around since the recording of time. Before there was sanitation, people added beer and wine to water. The alcohol would kill the germs and they could drink the water.  But the one thing about beer is the brewing process uses a lot of energy, and this where solar panels help. To brew beer, first you have to heat up a bunch of water so when you add the yeast, the malted barley, hops, the yeast can get the work turning the sugars into alcohol. Needless to say, when you do this on a grand scale, the power costs can easily get out of hand.

That is why breweries around the world are already using solar power to augment this huge amount of energy used. Large breweries like Heineken, MillerCoors, and Anheuser Busch already use solar panel arrays to augment their energy costs at facilities around the world. Craft breweries have taken notice and followed with their own solar panel systems on their own roofs.
Craft breweries already use sustainable practices like recycling and reusing water, donating their spent grains to local farmers, and using aluminum cans that are easily recyclable. Many are taking things to another level, sourcing brewery energy needs from the sun with solar power. Here are some top craft breweries that use solar power.
 

Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
Total solar power installed: 2.6 MW

The Sierra Nevada brewery in Chico CA houses one of the largest privately-owned solar arrays in the country. According to the company’s website, the 10,751 panels cover enough rooftop space to span three and a half football fields and supply 20 percent of the brewery’s electricity. Their 2.6MW solar panel system generates enough energy to power 265 average American households for a year. In their Mills River, NC, brewery, they have another 2,200 solar panels including freestanding solar trees in their parking lot. If you ranked their solar output to all breweries, they produce the third most solar-powered electricity, only behind Heineken and MillerCoors.
 

Lagunitas Brewing Company
Total solar power installed: 2.1 MW

Lagunitas Brewing Company can join Sierra Nevada as a solar power leader. Their Petaluma California brewery has enough solar panels to generate 2.1 MW of solar power to the brewery.
The project has 6,000 panels installed on the roof of their cold storage warehouse, administration building, and on the brewery's nearby farm. It provides about 50 percent of the brewery's electricity needs and this solar project is the second largest solar array in Sonoma County, California.
 

Highland Brewing Company
Total solar power installed: 324 kW

Highland Brewing Company in Asheville, North Carolina installed a 324 kW solar power system in 2014. Made up of 1,045 solar panels and this system powers most of the needs of Highland Brewing
 

Stone Brewing Company
Total solar power installed: 312 kW

Stone Brewing Company's facility in Escondido, California has 331 kW of solar capacity. Made of 1,561 solar panels, this system was installed in 2008. It produces about 20 percent of Stone's total electricity needs.
 

New Belgium Brewing Company
Total solar power installed: 300 kW

Besides having some of the best craft beer in the world, the brewery has 1,235 solar panels producing about 300 kW of electricity. This amounts to about 4.5 percent of the brewery's electricity needs each year, but they keep adding to their solar panels. Their first installation was a 200 kW array in 2010. In 2014, they added another 96 kW to their existing panels.
 

Kona Brewing Company
Total solar power installed: 229 kW

Like California and Colorado, Hawaii is a solar power leader, so it's no surprise that Hawaii's largest craft brewery has gone solar. In 2010, Kona Brewing installed a 229 kW solar power system. They are able to offset nearly 50 percent of the brewery's electricity needs with solar power. Over the lifetime of the solar power system, it's estimated that Kona will prevent 16,830 barrels of oil from being shipped to the island.

There are many more breweries large and small that use solar power and the number is only growing. Like other companies, brewers are joining the solar revolution because it makes sense to do so.
If companies are doing it so they can save money over time, then homeowners can do the same.
 

Solar Power is the Energy of the Future

Thank you for reading this quick list of solar breweries. Finding bigger and better ways to save using solar power, people and businesses alike are all becoming more aware of the great benefits of solar panel systems on both residential and commercial projects. For more informative articles about the industry, please visit our blog.

Finding out if the cost and savings solar makes sense for you is very easy using our Solar Price Checker. Before you know it your house can be just as cool as these solar breweries.