This Is How We Brew It
You can run your brewery in a number of ways that are less harmful to the environment. Lessening carbon emissions and lowering expenses are the two main advantages of renewable energy sources. Currently, the cheapest methods of power generation are wind and solar. This is true both at the utility level, where wind and solar farms power the national grid, as well as at the self-generation level, where renewables are routinely less expensive than grid purchases.
Figure 1: People having a toast. [1]
Why Renewable Energy?
On the environmental front, there is no question that decarbonisation is urgently required on a worldwide scale. Corporate carbon footprints are becoming significant KPIs, and senior executives frequently have carbon objectives in addition to their financial ambitions. Customers, shareholders, employees, and other supply chain organisations have all put pressure on this decision. That’s the reason, businesses of all sizes are putting money into renewable energy.
In Pursuit of Hoppiness
In 2017, Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), the company behind such beers as Budweiser, Stella Artois, Corona and more, announced its plans to run entirely on renewable energy by 2025. By 2019 AB InBev announced that Budweiser was brewed with 100% wind energy, making good on their promise. CleanEarth’s South Wales turbine provides almost a quarter of the energy consumed at Budweiser’s flagship UK brewery. The turbine has a 150-meter tip height, and its mix of long blades and technical prowess enables it to generate up to 3.5 megawatts of power. That would be enough to power 2,300 Welsh houses if Budweiser weren’t manufacturing beer with it.
Ale By Gale
BrewDog, a multinational brewery and pub chain based in Scotland made a similar promise. In June 2022 BrewDog released plans for a new bio-energy plant in Aberdeenshire, which will power the production of 176 million pints of beer a year. Any surplus green gas will then be used to power the delivery vehicles and help towards BrewDog’s sustainability goal.
One of the largest tree planting campaigns and peatland restoration projects in the UK is among BrewDog’s sustainability activities. More than 1.1 million trees will be planted, along with the restoration of peatlands, in the 9,308-acre Lost Forest in Aviemore. This project will be able to remove a considerable amount of carbon from the atmosphere over the next 100 years.
About Pager Power
Pager Power undertakes technical assessments for developers of renewable energy projects and tall buildings across the world. For more information about what we do, please get in touch.
References
[1] Pressmaster. People having a toast (Feb 2017) from Pexels. Last accessed on September 12th 2022. Available at: https://www.pexels.com/photo/people-having-a-toast-3851524/
[2] Brewersjournal.info. 2021. On site renewable power – The Brewers Journal.
[3] Sitzer, C., 2019. Budweiser Now Brews Their Beer With 100% Wind Energy. [online] Green Matters.
[4] ReNews.Biz. 2022. Budweiser UK goes 100% wind and solar. [online]
[5] Reid, S., 2022. BrewDog goes green with new bio-energy plant to fuel production of 176 million pints. [online] Scotsman.com.
[6] Lloyd, G., 2022. BrewDog launches £12m eco-friendly plant plan. [online] morningadvertiser.co.uk.
