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Dec 15, 2007 9:51 pm US/Pacific
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Off The Beaten Path: Fuel Cell Brewery
They come flying by in a blur: Thousands of bottles of Sierra Nevada Ale are processed daily here in this Chico brewery.
But all this activity takes a lot of electricity, so Sierra Nevada's founder and owner Ken Grossman decided to cut his energy bill in a massive way. Huge solar panels have been built above the employee's parking lot, and an even bigger array is now being erected atop these brewery buildings.
"The savings won't happen for a few years, because there is a pretty significant investment to put all of this stuff in," Grossman says. "But the paybacks are in the seven to eight year range right now."
Sierra Nevada is now also turning brewery waste products into another energy source.
"We are producing methane as a byproduct of digesting the waste water," Grossman says. "We use an anaerobic digester which operates in the absence of oxygen and as a byproduct we make methane."
That gas then heads over here to Sierra Nevada's new fuel cells which make even more electricity.
We'll have one of the largest systems in the country," he says. "When we are done, we will have almost one-and-a-half megawatts of solar produced power combined with our one megawatt of fuel cell power."
"Now add up all of this energy and the savings and Sierra Nevada is very close now to being energy independent," Grossman adds.
He says, yes, this all makes huge economic sense, but socially it's also a statement about his company's commitment.
"As a manufacturer who does use resources, we want to look at how we can conserve and do a better job."
The customers who stop by this elegant brewery for a taste may not give a thought to how much energy was used to make this golden ale, but just as this independent brewery has led the way in developing innovative beers, it's now also setting new standards for making energy in a variety of ways.