MillerCoors brews over 6 million barrels of beer a year in California, and now we're doing so with much more energy independence.
This week we finished installing more than 10,000 solar panels on 10 acres of our Irwindale brewery in Los Angeles County. At capacity on a sunny day, the panels will supply more than 40 percent of the brewery’s energy. That energy is used to heat kettles, package our products — any and all aspects of making beer.
Here are a few things to know about Irwindale, where beer is truly brewed by the sun:
MillerCoors Irwindale Brewery has the largest solar installation at any brewery in the U.S.
The panels have a 3.2 megawatt capacity — enough energy to power more than 13,000 California homes over 30 years … or brew 7 million cases of beer a year.
The reduction in carbon dioxide emissions is like planting 4.2 million trees
The solar installation will prevent more than 98.4 million pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere over its lifetime.
Using solar energy will save water too — enough to fill 1,000 Olympic-size pools
The panels will save nearly 675 million gallons of water over 30 years that would otherwise be consumed to produce electricity from fossil fuel or nuclear sources.
We’ve reduced energy use in our Irwindale Brewery by 30 percent over the past five years
And through our water conservation efforts, we’ve saved more than 186 million gallons of water since 2009. The new solar panels are just the next step toward brewing more sustainably.