New year, new solar beer as Moon Dog Brewing taps the sun

Melbourne-based Moon Dog Brewing has joined the ranks of Australian beer makers powered by solar, with the installation of just under 100kW of rooftop PV at the Preston craft brewery and pub.

The 99.8kW system, which was actually commissioned almost a year ago in the early part of 2020, was designed and installed by PV outfit Energis, using 317 PV panels and one Fimer PVS-100 inverter.

The system also uses Fimer’s Aurora Vision monitoring program, which allows the craft brewery to keep constant tabs on how much power it is generating and offers the possibility to coordinate periods of high energy demand with high PV output.

“Our site, like many other food and beverage sites, is power hungry, we have boilers, chill units and big packaging lines,” said Karl Van Buuren, Moon Dog’s co-founder.

“Using Fimer’s monitoring solution allows us to see how much our solar is producing, which helps offset the large energy using equipment on-site.

“We can see what time of day we are generating the most solar energy, plus see reporting on how much we are producing and consuming on a month-to-month basis.”

Moon Dog numbers among a growing cohort of brewers, large and small, Australian and international, that are choosing to power their operations with renewable energy, ranging from onsite solar to wind and solar farm offtake deals.

Big hitters include Lion Nathan, XXXX, and global heavyweight Anheuser Bosch In-Bev, which is the parent company of Fosters Group and CUB, to name just a couple of Australia’s biggest brewers.

On the smaller side of the equation, One Step Off The Grid did a virtual tour of Australian solar craft breweries back in 2018. Obviously, an update is required.

According to Moon Dog Brewing, its rooftop PV system – since being commissioned – has generated more than 110MWh of solar, cutting the business’ energy costs and emissions and inspiring the release of a limited edition India Pale Ale (IPA) called “The Future Is Bright.”

Bottoms up!