The Engineer

Solar panels power Budweiser brewery

News

Budweiser beer-maker Anheuser-Busch has installed photovoltaic solar panels on the roof of its Newark, New Jersey, brewery that will cover nearly five per cent of the brewery’s electricity demand at peak production times.

At peak production, the solar panel array will produce more than 525,000 kilowatt hours annually.

Orion Energy Systems designed, installed and will operate, monitor and maintain the array, which comprises more than 3,000 photovoltaic solar panels covering 65,000ft2.

This is not the first environmentally friendly power to supply the brewery, however. A Bio-Energy Recovery System (BERS) has been in place at the Newark facility for more than 15 years, turning the nutrients in the wastewater into biogas that already provides up to 15 per cent of the fuel needed to power the facility’s boilers.

Currently, 10 of Anheuser-Busch’s 12 US breweries use the BERS technology to help fuel operations.