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(Photo Courtesy of Sarah Fraser, New Belgium Brewing)
New Belgium Brewing was one of the first craft breweries to embrace more earth-friendly business practices.
New Belgium’s original brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado started adding solar panels in 2010 and added an additional 96kW solar array five years after that..
In 2014, New Belgium opened its LEED-certified brewery in Asheville, North Carolina with solar panels atop its liquid center and plans to add an additional array atop the brewhouse and production facility at a later date.
And after a decade in North Carolina they’ve made good on that promise…
On May 18, New Belgium Brewing announced the completion of a large solar installation at its Asheville brewery. The new 446 KW Solar PV system, installed by Renu Energy Solutions, includes 1,063 solar modules spanning the facility’s 114,000 square-foot roof, capable of producing an estimated 620,000 kWh of electricity annually.
(Courtesy New Belgium Brewing)
Over 25 years, the renewable energy now being produced in Asheville will offset roughly 11,100 tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to eliminating the greenhouse gas emissions of approximately 2,200 passenger cars annually.
The new solar installation builds on other major investments at New Belgium’s Asheville brewery in the past two years – including a new canning line added in 2020, ten additional tanks to expand barrelage capacity installed just this spring, and a beer garden expansion project debuting this summer.
“As we celebrate 10 years since announcing our move to Asheville with a brewery designed for rooftop solar,” said Jay Richardson, General Manager of New Belgium Brewing Asheville,” we’re thrilled to make good on our commitment to add more renewable energy to the grid.”
The new solar installation in Asheville more than doubles the solar power that New Belgium previously provided across both breweries.
New Belgium embarked on its climate action journey three decades ago, as part of the company’s founding principles established in 1991.
Most recently, New Belgium’s flagship Fat Tire became America’s first certified carbon neutral beer in 2020, and the company simultaneously committed to make the entire business carbon neutral by 2030
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(Image credits: New Belgium Brewing)
