The coming Australian summer looks set to deliver another solar powered beer brand, with New South Wales’ 4 Pines Brewing Company calling for investors from its local Northern Beaches community to back the installation of 100kW of PV next month.
The crowd-funding round will be led by community solar organisations Pingala Co-operative and ClearSky Solar Investment, and will offer those who sign up as much as 8 per cent return on their investment.
And the 100kW solar system – which will power the 4 Pines Brewery, pack line, and office spaces in Brookvale, Sydney – will be installed by Smart Commercial Solar in November.
Once the system is installed 4 Pines will continue to pay for electricity consumed, with the proceeds returned to shareholders via a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Smart Commercial Solar.
The PV system is expected to deliver nearly 40 per cent of 4 Pines’ electricity needs, bringing the at boutique brewer in line with its parent company, AB InBev, which aims to source 100 per cent of its purchased electricity from renewable sources by 2025.
And data collected by Smart Commercial Solar on 4 Pines energy usage patterns is also being used to improve the brewery’s energy efficiencies across the business.
The addition of solar at 4 Pines is part of a growing trend in Australian brewing, that has seen solar added at a rate almost matching that of new craft breweries popping up around the country.
As we reported here, beer lovers who prefer their beverage to be solar powered have any number of brands to choose from, all around the nation.
And this is not the only craft brewery solar installation that has been crowd-funded, either.