Solar beer pioneer adds second crowd-funded rooftop PV system

Boutique Sydney brewer, Young Henry’s, has crowd-funded a second rooftop solar system, a 68.6kW array installed on the roof of the company’s warehouse, opposite the already solar powered tasting bar and brewery.

Young Henry’s on Thursday officially launched the new solar system, installed last week by Solargain after being financed, once again, through a local fund-raise led by community renewables outfit Pingala Cooperaitive.

Pingala also led the fundraising effort that installed Young Henry’s first solar system back in 2016, successfully raising a total of $17,500 in just nine minutes to pay for a 29.9kW array to power the brewery in Newtown.

Investors, then, comprised 74 of the brewery’s most devoted customers and community members, including Clover Moore, Lord Mayor of the City of Sydney and Jenny Leong, Member for NSW Parliament.

This time around, Pingala said it recieved 98 responses in just three hours after the Young Henry’s launched an expressions of interest to its Beer Club newsletter, in May 2021 – amounting to a 250% oversubscription to the new solar project.

“This oversubscription is a constant reminder that people are so keen for these types of projects, putting their money where their heart is and supporting community beverage sites they truly love,” said Pingala co-founder April Crawford-Smith.

The new system – which had its official solar-powered launch on Thursday afternoon – will offer investors a 5-8% annual dividend, via Pingala, and Young Henry’s will own the solar panels outright after five years.

Since Young Henry’s made the sift to solar, solar powered craft breweries have become almost commonplace in Australia – the Clean Energy Council did a round up of some of them in 2018, which One Step Off The Grid covered here.

Melbourne-based Moon Dog Brewing joined the ranks more recently, with the installation of just under 100kW of rooftop PV at the Preston craft brewery and pub.

Global heavyweights are also making the switch to renewables, like Anheuser Bosch In-Bev, which committed to purchase electricity renewable sources only by 2025, bringing with it some of Australia’s most iconic brewers, including Carlton & United (CUB), which in March of 2018 kicked off its solar journey with a contract to buy the output of the 112MW Karadoc solar farm in Victoria.