Castlemaine Perkins, brewers of the (in)famous XXXX (pronounced “four-ex”) beer announced last week that it had completed a $2 million project to install solar panels on its Milton, Brisbane brewery.
XXXX beer – known the world over – is, if not an Australian favourite, at least an Australian brewing icon, with Queensland origins that date back to 1878.
According to Lion, the parent company, XXXX Gold is still “Australia’s number 1 beer” thanks to a 3.5 per cent alcoholic content “that’s big on taste, and we think best matched with big blue skies, sun-drenched days, good chats and great mates!”
That’s certainly one point of view… Regardless of your taste in beers, though, Lion can be praised for recent efforts to improve its brewery over the past decade.
Already the company has spent over $5 million on such innovations as “a state-of-the-art reverse osmosis plant which reuses waste water – enabling XXXX Gold to be produced at a ratio of 2.8 litres of water for every litre of beer produced, which is approaching world-leading levels of efficiency for brewing,” explained Lion’s Group Supply Chain Director Ian Roberts.
Announced last week, a further improvement is the installation of a $2 million solar panel installation atop the 140-year-old Milton brewery. Made up of 2,200 solar panels, the 690kW will generate approximately 1,368,000 kilowatt hours every year – the equivalent electricity consumed by 150 large Brisbane homes annually.
“This will reduce the site’s annual carbon emissions by about 1260 tonnes, which is about seven per cent of CO2 emissions from electricity used at XXXX,” said Roberts.
“We are committed to reducing our environmental footprint and being a good neighbour to the many residents and businesses that call Milton home.
“And we will keep the big yellow wheel in place on Milton Road just as a reminder of how far we’ve come. It is change like this that has allowed us to preserve the brewery’s rich history and keep making Queensland’s favourite beer. This is something everyone at XXXX is very proud of.”
As we have reported on One Step, the shift to solar by beer makers is officially “a thing,” with companies from global giant Anheuser-Busch InBev, to boutique brewers all around Australia, making the switch to renewables.
Click here to go on a tour of Australia’s solar powered craft brewers. Or read about CUB’s shift to 100 per cent renewables here.
This post was published on June 26, 2019 1:52 pm
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Pedantic it may be but...
The photo shows a significant portion of the solar panels (in that location) shadowed by the nearby trees.
I cannot make out whether the roof directly above the PV paneled roof has PV on it but if not it does seems sub-optimal to put these ones in the shade.
Surely the site had more places available on the various structures that have no shade?
Pedantic it is not. Those trees will partly shade the array and drop leaves on it throughout the year. From the photo, shading is probably at its worst right now. Even with micro inverters or multi-stringing panels that array will be compromised so long as the trees hang over it
That roof only contains 16% of the total panels installed as part of the project, and as each panel is connected to an energy optimiser unit beneath it, shaded panels will not bring down the entire string that it is part of. The remainder of the installed panels is virtually shade free during the day. To the layperson, there will appear to be more favourable, less-shaded roof areas on site. However, many of the buildings are quite old and although the roof sheeting may have been replaced and looks new, the old timber roof framing beneath is not structurally adequate for a solar PV installation. The roof area on the left side of that photo is one of these locations where new sheeting has been placed on an old building.
Spot on there, Andrew! That was the first thing that struck me, apart from the very large four Xes on those very large cylinders. Now we know what XXXX really spells, SOLAR! Oh, and they are also very poor at counting!! ;-)
If the stated installed system is 690KW, then it is extremely ambitious {misleading} to state that the annual production will be 1,368,000 kwhs every year ! The shading is plain ridiculous and there are too many so called experts over stating returns in the industry and I have been seeing it now for over 10 years as an industry specialist !
Four Ex just happens to be on tap at my local (in NSW). After first reading this story I just had to go and celebrate with a schooner. Rays of sunlight in every drop. All the very best, but still, go the cockroaches.
I dont think that looks like 2200 odd panels so I wouldn't worry too much about the shade in the afternoon. Its a 24 hour operation so going Zero emmission will be interesting. I presume a reduction of 7% CO2 means a reduction of about 7% of their power bill. Good start but at that rate it means at least another $28 million will need to be spent and being a 24 hour operation storage will be an issue.