Solar Powered Breweries

The following is a summary for a 2016 link found here.

Top 10 Craft Breweries that use Solar Power

Brewery	Total Power	%of brewery's use	# of Panels	~Panel wattage	estimated investment
Sierra Nevada Brewing Company	2.6 MW	20%	10,573	245 W	$8M
Lagunitas Brewing Company	2.1 MW	50%	6,000	350 W	$6.3M
Highland Brewing Company	324 kW	?	1,045	300 W	$1M
Stone Brewing Company	312 kW	20%	?	?	$1M
New Belgium Brewing Company	300 kW	4.5 %	1,235	240 W	$1M
Kona Brewing Company	229 kW	50%	?	?	$700,000
Bear Republic Brewing Company	166.8 kW	45%	?	?	$500,000
SweetWater Brewing Company	157 kW	?	750	210 W	$500,000
Flying Fish Brewing Company	129 kW	?	463	280 W	$400,000
Anderson Valley Brewing Company	125 kW	40%	768	160 W	$400,000

Solar Panel info

Commercial panel sizes are ~ 77 inches by 39 inches.

Commercial panel weight ~50 lbs each.

Commercial panel power is 230-275 W (standard) and 325-345 W (high output).

Commercial panel cost ~ $2-$6 per watt

Examples (250 W panels @ $3/W)

• 10 kW ~ 35 panels, ~ cost $30,000
• 250 kW ~ 1000 panels, ~ cost $750,000
• 2 MW ~ 8000 panels, ~ cost $6,000,000

Solar Incentive Programs

Federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC) - Solar (30% of total cost)

Solar Education

Illinois Solar Energy Association

• non-profit
• public webinars
• videos

Usage and Units

Watt (W) is a "rating" indicating an amount of power needed to operate the unit, where as a watt-hour (Wh) is a measure of the amount of power used over time.

Example 1: If a typical light bulb is "rated" at 60 W, then when this light bulb operates for 1 hour, it has used 60 Wh amount of energy. If this bulb operated for 24 hours, then it uses 1,440 Wh or 1.44 kWh.

Example 2: If a solar panel is "rated" at 200 W, then when the panel is exposed to sun for 1 hour, it has created 200 Wh amount of energy. If this panel is exposed to sunlight for 8 hours per day, then this panel will generate 1,600 Wh or 1.6 kWh.

From the examples above, we can see that a 200 W solar panel in the sun for 8 hours will generate the same amount of energy needed to power a 60 W lightbulb all day. Note: the energy generated by the solar panel is only available while the sun is shining on the panel, so if you wish to run your lights at night, you will be required to store the solar energy in a battery which is significantly more expensive. Many solar panel "grids" can feed power back into the electrical companies "power grid," so while your solar panels are producing power any excess can be "credited" to your later use.

Other examples"

A portable heater listed at 1500 W (1.5 kW) will consume 1.5 kW per hour (1.5kWh) and will cost ~ $0.17 per hour to operate (est energy cost $0.11 kWh).

A old refrigerator will consume 150 kWh per month and cost ~$16.50 per month to operate.

A new refrigerator will consume 35 kWh per month and cost ~$4.00 per month to operate.

An electric water heater will consume ~450 kWh per month and cost ~$50 per month to operate.

A desktop computer costs ~$0.03 per hour to operate; if you leave your computer on all the time, it costs you ~$0.75/day.

An incandescent light bulb cost ~$0.01 per hour or ~ $0.25 per day.

A compact florescent light bulb cost ~ $0.06/day.

Consider a home that has the following:

1) a new refrigerator (1.2 kWh/day)

2) a medium size water heater (15 kWh/day)

3) a 50" flat screen TV (runs 4 hours/day = 2.5 kWh)

4) a desktop computer (runs 24 hours/day = 4.8 kWh)

5) lighting (2.4 kWh)

6) "central" air conditioning (30 kWh/day)

Total of ~50-60 kWh/day --> which would require 275 solar panels (200 W) collecting sunlight for 8 hours; without air conditioning, ~130 solar panels. If you paid for high efficiency panels (325 W) then with air conditioning you need only 175 panels or without air conditioning ~85 panels. The initial investment to install high efficiency panels would be ~$165,000 less ~50% rebates = ~$83,000.

Energy use chart