Anheuser-Busch activates power system
By Richard Bammer
Posted: 04/17/2009
Thursday, Kevin Finger (left), Fairfield Anheuser-Busch Brewery Plant Manager, turned on the power to allow more than six acres of photovoltaic solar arrays to help reduce the plant's carbon footprint. (Gilberto Ramirez/The Reporter)
Another major Solano County firm has joined the ranks of heroes in the fight against global warming, saving dollars in the process, too, by going green.
As state Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Solano, and Fairfield Mayor Harry Price flipped on a symbolic oversized switch, Anheuser-Busch officials cheered at a press conference Tuesday to fete the brewery's new solar power system on the south side of the airplane hangar-sized Fairfield plant on Busch Drive, fronting Interstate 80.
At 1.2 megawatts on 6 acres, it is among the largest systems of its kind in the county, slightly larger than two recent Vacaville projects -- the one activated last December at Mariani Packing Co. and the one switched on in 2007 at ALZA Corp.
Installed and operated by SunEdison, the same Maryland-based solar firm that installed the Mariani system, the many hundreds of panels will generate about 3 percent of the brewery's electricity needs, said plant manager Kevin Finger, who spoke to a small gathering of print, TV journalists, Fairfield city officials and two county supervisors.
Mark Culpepper, chief technology officer for SunEdison, said the solar panels will produce an estimated 1.8 million kilowatt hours of clean energy, and, over two decades, will produce more than 33 million kwh, enough to power 3,190 average U.S. homes for a year. As a zero-emission system, with carbon-dioxide offsets, it is roughly the equivalent of taking 3,500 cars off the road for a year, he added.
"Every company can make a difference" in the battle against global warming, Culpepper said. "Our destiny is really in our hands."
Anheurser-Busch spokeswoman Ellen Bogard said the firm's solar panels were activated Dec. 30, along with the building of a bio-energy recovery system, which provides more than 15 percent of the brewery's fuel needs by turning nutrients in plant wastewater into gas.
In a press release, she noted that renewable fuels used at Anheuser-Busch's U.S. plants means that about one in seven beers brewed in America -- or more than five billion 12-ounce servings annually -- is made with alternative energy.
Finger said the two projects are the company's latest examples of its longtime ecology-awareness philosophy, a tradition that dates back to the late 19th century.
Senator Wolk noted that since 2004, through energy conservation, innovation and alternative fuel use, the brewery has decreased fuel use by 38 percent, water use by 32 percent and electricity usage by 14 percent.
The new solar panels "send a very important message," of conservation and clean energy sources, she said.
Mayor Price called the solar panels' activation "a remarkable day" in Fairfield's history, auguring "hope for all of us" and a bright future.
"May the power be with you," he quipped just before flipping the symbolic switch.
As it did at Mariani, SunEdison signed a 20-year solar power purchase contract with Anheuser-Busch. Besides maintaining the system, it will charge no more than current retail costs for electricity supplied by the new panels.
Most of the savings will come during the summer months, when PG&E boosts its rates during high-demand hours. When demand is low, Anheuser-Busch can sell power from its solar system to the PG&E grid and recoup some costs.
The Anheuser-Busch system is among 135 other SunEdison solar projects in California that supply 40 megawatts of power.
In an era of wild swings in energy costs, corporate interest in renewable energy resources has grown across the state, nation and world, in part because the supply of fossil fuels, which are used to generate most electricity, is finite and diminishing.
According to a 2007 U.S. Department of Energy report, renewable resources still make up only a small share of domestic energy production (about 6.8 percent or excluding hydropower about 4 percent). The major reason for this is their relatively higher cost, in some cases two to four times that of power obtained from traditional fuels.
The photovoltaic solar arrays, installed and operated by SunEdison, boost the plant's renewable energy. (Gilberto Ramirez/The Reporter)
