Sierra Nevada Brews Eco-Friendly Beer

Sierra Nevada Brewing Company is approaching its 30th anniversary. In that time, this mountainous brewery has established itself as one of America’s leading craft-brewing companies. But that’s not enough for these green-minded brewmasters – in recent years, Sierra Nevada has made an astounding effort to incorporate sustainability and renewable energy into their business model.

To say that their move to clean energy independence has been aggressive would be an understatement. It began with a 1-megawatt co-generation fuel cell plant. Directly after that, in 2007, phase one of Sierra Nevada’s ambitious solar installation took shape as a 442-kilowatt solar tracking array installed over the company’s parking lot. It not only tracks the sun daily across the sky to maximize system efficiency, but also provides shade for employee and visitor vehicles.

In 2008, phase two was completed by way of solar panels decorating most of the facility’s rooftops. In tote, Sierra Nevada now has 1.4 megawatts (AC) of solar power producing the vast majority of the brewery’s power needs. It is one of the largest private solar electric systems in the United States.

And solar power is just a piece of Sierra Nevada’s sustainability push. In addition to the 1.4-MW solar installations and over 1-MW of fuel cell generation, the company also:

• Produces its own biodiesel for use in its long-haul and local route trucking.
• Provides spent grain, yeast and hops for feed for local beef and dairy cattle.
• Uses compost from the manure produced by said cattle as fertilizer for SN’s on-site hop field.
• Recycles voraciously: in 2007, SN diverted over 33,000 tons of recyclable materials from landfills – over 98% of the brewery’s waste products.
• Uses a vapor condenser to recover waste steam from the kettle boiling step to preheat process water. SN uses plate heat exchangers to recover energy wherever possible in the brewing process.
• Installed a system to recover CO2 emitted from natural fermentation. The CO2 is then used to aid in bottling Sierra Nevada brews.
• Constantly takes steps to improve energy efficiency throughout the facility, including light sensors and high-efficiency motors and refrigeration systems.
• Reduced water usage to nearly half the amount typically used by breweries in the United States.
• Is the first company in the U.S. to purchase a hybrid electric route truck for local deliveries.

Believe it or not, these momentous steps are only part of a continuing process as Sierra Nevada works to supply all of its energy on-site through alternative energy sources. Remaining grid energy is purchased through a voluntary carbon offset program from PG&E. Sierra Nevada is most certainly almost there, and shows no sign of losing any aggressiveness in the hunt for truly sustainable beer making.

You can actually follow the real-time power output of Sierra’s sun tracking solar carports (phase one of their solar system), which was built using 220-watt SunPower modules. Information for the second, rooftop phase, made from 185-watt Mitsubishi solar panels, should be available soon. Visit the Sierra Nevada website for more information.

Posted on September 2nd in Solar Products by Dan.