Sustainable brewing in Colorado not done impressing you yet

January 12, 2010 · Posted in Energy · 2 Comments 

Odell's going to be getting over a third of its energy from its own solar array.

photo by flickr user Tobyotter

Sláinte! Said it before and I’ll say it again, I think Colorado likes green beer more than Boston does.

Anybody who’s ever been up to Fort Collins to tour a brewery or two knows what pride they take in the reduction of their carbon footprint. For example, New Belgium Brewery has been 100% wind-powered for quite a long time (fun facts: so has Brooklyn Brewery, whose fedora-sporting owner learned to brew beer while he was an AP correspondent in the Middle East).

But two Fort Collins breweries are ramping it up:

Not THAT kind of green beer, you maroon | photo by flickr user eustaquio

Now, New Belgium’s turning on a big ol’ solar array (870 panels, 200 kilowatts, according to the Coloradoan, and that they said back in August would take care of up to 13 percent of their energy needs; $1 million to build, but the Department of Energy paid for about 40 percent). And Odell Brewing Company is installing a big array, too (76.8 kilowatts, 39 percent of their energy needs).

New Belgium is working in partnership with Fort Collins’ FortZED initiative, which is a public/private collaboration to lighten the load on the electrical grid during peak hours.

h/t @ecopolitologist and Earth and Industry

Tags: , , , , ,